<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Lucky by Annerb</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26037697">Lucky</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annerb/pseuds/Annerb'>Annerb</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bonus Materials for The Changeling and Armistice Series [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>AU, F/M, Fic of Fic, I have No Excuse, Utter ridiculousness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:21:05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>20,524</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26037697</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annerb/pseuds/Annerb</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>One little vial of felix felicis and everything changes. Alternate storyline for The Changeling.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Potter/Ginny Weasley</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Bonus Materials for The Changeling and Armistice Series [7]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1586182</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>137</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>604</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I started this about three months ago when someone sent me this ask: "Wouldn't be sooooo funny if like Ginny went to find Ron to congratulate him. But overheard hermione talking about Felix felicies and like Harry sees her listening and they just argue in front of everyone. Cause Harry's gets her fired up everyone hears about the liquid luck. It turns into a ass whole situation" </p>
<p>and then I wrote this. I have no explanation. Originally posted to tumblr. No idea if there will be more.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Having said goodbye to Fred and George, commiserated with her team over the loss, and had a quick shower and change, Ginny can no longer put off congratulating Ron on his win. And his frankly surprisingly impressive show as Keeper. She’s only a little mad at him for that.</p>
<p>She could probably wait until morning, but she figures if she goes now, Ron will probably be so distracted that he won’t be a complete git about the whole thing. And then she won’t have to deal with it tomorrow.</p>
<p>And so she climbs the stairs towards Gryffindor Tower, the noise only getting louder and louder as she gets closer, and those prats are either even louder than normal or they’ve spilled out of their common room into the halls. How they get away with half of the stunts they pull, she will never know.</p>
<p>She’s finally in sight of the round portrait hole when it swings open, Harry stepping out into the hall, or being shoved rather, by an irate-looking Hermione. Her cheeks are flushed as she hisses something at Harry, but it’s not until the portrait hole closes behind them that she can make out any of the words.</p>
<p>“—you shouldn’t have done that, Harry! It’s <em>illegal</em>!”</p>
<p>Harry looks equally annoyed, face still a bit red and flush with victory, hair a wild mess. “Done what exactly?” he says in a tone seemingly perfectly designed to nettle Hermione.</p>
<p>“I saw you do it, Harry! I saw you put felix felicis in Ron’s pumpkin juice this morning!” </p>
<p>Ginny freezes, feeling like she’s just taken a quaffle to the solar plexus.</p>
<p>But rather than denying it, Harry just lets out a bark of laughter, turning around to face Hermione, but stopping as his eyes fall on Ginny standing motionless on the stairs. “Ginny,” he says, his face seeming to pale.</p>
<p>She turns on her heel, heading back down the stairs. Her head should be a riot of thoughts, of cheating and filthy rotten Gryffindor hyprocrites, and how awful Harry must think Ron is to do something like that, to his best sodding friend, and all the ways she is going to get back at him for this. For taking a victory from her like that after how hard she’s worked. How hard her team has worked.</p>
<p>But instead all she feels is this sickly swooping feeling in her stomach like she’s swallowed a writhing ocean, like gravity dragging her down roughly. It feels way, way, way too familiar, and she hates it.</p>
<p>
  <em>You fool. </em>
</p>
<p>“Ginny, wait!” Harry calls out after her, his feet pounding down the stairs as he follows her.</p>
<p>Somehow she manages to speak, not looking back at him as she continues down the stairs. “Don’t worry. I’m not a tattler, remember?”</p>
<p>Tomorrow, when she has a calmer head, that is when she’ll decide exactly how to respond. Because she is going to do something about this. Oh, <em>yes</em>, she is. But telling Madam Hooch or McGonagall is not on her list.</p>
<p>“That’s not—” Harry sputters, still following her.</p>
<p>“I should have known you weren’t just being that helpful,” she says, more mad at herself for actually trusting, for actually <em>believing—</em>but she should know better than that. That he actually believed she could be a good captain, that he really wanted to help, when all along he was never going to give her a fair chance to try to prove it. “What an <em>idiot</em> I am.”</p>
<p>“Would you just stop?” Harry says, grabbing her arm.</p>
<p>Ginny spins around, pulling her wand, feeling red hot rage surge through her body, and she tells herself <em>that</em> is what is causing the humiliating prick of tears in her eyes. She is better than this, better than letting her temper push her into mindless, reactive revenge.</p>
<p>Harry’s eyes dart to her wand and back up to her face, but he doesn’t back away either, or look scared, and why can’t he find her terrifying at least once when it would be most convenient?</p>
<p>“I didn’t do it,” he says, slightly out of breath. Over his shoulder, Ginny can see that Hermione has followed them, looking between them with wide eyes.</p>
<p>“Oh, really,” Ginny says, not putting away her wand.</p>
<p>“I saw you do it, Harry,” Hermione says, apparently not above throwing him to the wolves.</p>
<p>“You <em>think</em> you did,” Harry says, shooting an annoyed glare back at her. “And so did Ron. That was the whole bloody point.”</p>
<p>Hermione frowns. “I don’t understand.”</p>
<p>But Harry doesn’t seem all that concerned with her understanding, turning back to Ginny. “Just let me show you,” he says, hand reaching into his pocket.</p>
<p>He pulls out a small glass vial full of golden liquid. He offers it, palm held out to Ginny.</p>
<p>“Take it,” he says, shoving it closer.</p>
<p>Stowing her wand, she reaches out and picks it up. It’s very obviously still sealed and full of liquid.</p>
<p>“I just…wanted Ron to stop stressing out so much for once, so he could see how good he is all on his own when he’s not being completely mental.”</p>
<p>Realization slowly dawns. “So you pretended to put it in when you knew he was watching,” Ginny says. </p>
<p>“Yeah.”</p>
<p>A perfectly executed gambit.</p>
<p>“Oh, Harry,” Hermione says, looking miserable and wringing her hands. “I’m sorry.” Ginny supposes she <em>had</em> threatened to go to McGonagall.</p>
<p>Harry doesn’t look at Hermione, still waiting for Ginny’s response. Only she isn’t at all sure what she feels.</p>
<p>Ginny swallows to clear her throat. “You’d better tell Ron. Or he’ll just end up feeling even worse about himself.” She looks over at Hermione, finding that easier to do at the moment. “I came to tell him congratulations.” </p>
<p>Hermione nods. “I’ll go get him, okay? Okay, Harry?”</p>
<p>She waits for him to nod his agreement, and with that, she turns, heading back up.</p>
<p>Ginny is left standing on the stairs with Harry, still feeling like an idiot, but maybe for an entirely different reason now. She hadn’t been wrong to be mad, when she thought it was true. To be mad at him for cheating.</p>
<p>Though that didn’t explain the yawning feeling of betrayal that had more to do with it being Harry who had done it than anything else.</p>
<p>For lack of anything else to do, she starts walking back towards the Gryffindor Common Room.</p>
<p>Harry lets out a breath of what sounds like relief. Probably that she isn’t threatening to hex him anymore.</p>
<p>“I’m sorry,” he says, walking up next to her.</p>
<p>She shakes her head. “Clearly you didn’t do anything wrong. I shouldn’t have—” She stops, not really sure what she shouldn’t have done. Jumped to conclusions? Been stupid enough to trust someone in the first place?</p>
<p>“I know how hard you’ve worked,” he says. “And you nearly got us as it was—”</p>
<p>She lifts her hand. “Let’s not with the platitudes right now.” The loss is still too raw.</p>
<p>“It’s not a—” He breaks off as Hermione comes darting past them down the stairs.</p>
<p>Ginny barely catches a glimpse of her face beneath the riot of bushy hair framing her face, but it’s enough to see the tears in her eyes.</p>
<p>“Hermione?” she asks.</p>
<p>She doesn’t stop or respond, Ginny sharing a worried glance with Harry. They both turn to look towards the open doorway just in time to see Ron wrapped around Lavender Brown in the middle of the common room, their faces stuck together. The door swings shut.</p>
<p>Harry has a bemused look of shock on his face at seeing his best mate sucking face with one of his housemates, only then he looks down the stairs after Hermione. “Oh, bollocks,” he says.</p>
<p>Oh, bollocks, indeed. Stupid, stupid Ron. “You’d better go after her,” Ginny says. She and Hermione are not all that close, besides which, a Weasley is probably the last thing she wants to see right now.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Harry says, sounding pained. He starts down the stairs only to pause, looking back up at her. “Ginny.”</p>
<p>“Yeah?” she asks, prepared for him to try to pawn the unsavory task off on her.</p>
<p>His hand bumps against the railing. “I meant it, you know. I really did want to help.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” Ginny says, feeling warmth working up her neck as she realizes what she’d said earlier in her agitation. “It’s fine.”</p>
<p>He opens his mouth, like he wants to say more but isn’t really sure what to, or doesn’t have time to. He glances back down the stairs, looking cross and torn.</p>
<p>“Harry,” she says. “Just go. We can talk later.” Or hopefully just forget all about it.</p>
<p>He seems to perk up at this. “Can we?”</p>
<p>“Of course,” she says, her stomach feeling a bit funny at the thought.  </p>
<p>He grins. “Okay. I’ll come find you. Tomorrow?”</p>
<p>Ginny hadn’t been expecting something so certain, or so soon. “Sure,” she says, feeling her heart pounding a little too strongly in her chest. “Tomorrow.”</p>
<p>“Great,” he says, nodding with a wide grin on his face. “Excellent.”</p>
<p>She’s beginning to feel a little like an emotional whirlwind at this point, finding herself rolling her eyes at him as he keeps standing there, but also with an answering smile on her face. “Harry.”</p>
<p>“Yeah?”</p>
<p>She points down the stairs. “Hermione?”</p>
<p>“Right. Bollocks. Gotta go.” And with that, he turns, finally thundering down the stairs in search of a heart-broken Hermione.</p>
<p>In a bit of a daze, Ginny wanders her way back down to her common room, trying not to think too hard on what tomorrow might bring.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sitting in the cloister trying to catch up on her transfiguration reading, Ginny keeps finding her attention wandering. One time she realizes her knee is bouncing up and down and tells herself off for being ridiculous. She’s never felt quite this much anxiety in the cloister before. It’s usually been a nice place to escape. Of course, she also wasn’t usually waiting for someone to show up. To <em>talk later</em>. What did that even mean?</p>
<p><em>You’re being stupid</em>, she tells herself and tries to refocus on her work. With minimal success really. Which makes it doubly ridiculous that Harry manages to sneak up on her.</p>
<p>“Hey,” he says from behind her.</p>
<p>She makes a mortifying kind of squeak, nearly dumping her book to the floor.</p>
<p>“Sorry!” Harry says immediately, coming around in front of her.</p>
<p>She shakes her head, pressing her hand to her chest. “No, it’s fine. I was just…”</p>
<p>“<em>Really</em> into transfiguration?” he says, tilting his head as he looks down at her book.</p>
<p>She lets out a shaky laugh. “Unlikely.”</p>
<p>He <em>grins</em> at her, and how dare he really. She looks away, not enjoying the strange fluttering in her stomach. It’s just <em>Harry</em>. She’s probably still just relieved he hadn’t actually cheated in the Quidditch match.</p>
<p>Speaking of…</p>
<p>Reaching into her pocket, she pulls out the small vial full of golden liquid. “You ran off before I could give this back to you.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” Harry says, his smile fading a bit. “Thanks.” He takes it from her, slipping it into the pocket of his robes.</p>
<p>An awkward silence stretches between them, Ginny not sure why he hasn’t left. Surely he only came to get that back.</p>
<p>“Are you going to yell at me some more?” Harry eventually asks.</p>
<p>She blinks, looking up at him. “Do you want me to?”</p>
<p>He rubs at his hair. “Not particularly.” He peers at her face, like he’s trying to figure out if she will or not.</p>
<p>“For the record,” she feels the need to point out, “I never yelled.”</p>
<p>His eyebrows lift. “Right. I suppose you only almost hexed me.”</p>
<p>She feels her face burn red in mortification. “Well, if you’d actually done it, you would have deserved it,” she snaps, feeling strangely nettled.</p>
<p>Now Harry looks like he’s trying really hard not to smile, lifting his hands. “Fair enough.”</p>
<p>She takes a breath, smoothing a hand down her robes as if to settle herself.</p>
<p>Harry shifts on his feet. “So…truce?”</p>
<p>She rolls her eyes. “For now, I suppose.”</p>
<p>“That’s ominous,” he says.</p>
<p>And yet he <em>still</em> isn’t running away.</p>
<p>She pulls her book back into her lap, but doesn’t start reading. “How’s Hermione?”</p>
<p>Harry sighs. “They’re not speaking to each other anymore.”</p>
<p>She frowns, having a pretty good idea why Hermione is upset, but not her brother. “Ron’s mad now too? Why?”</p>
<p>Harry sits down next to her. “Oh, that’s the best part. After I went to find Hermione, we were sitting and talking and Ron and bloody Lavender stumbled onto us. Clearly looking for somewhere to have a snog.”</p>
<p>“Oh, no,” Ginny says. Of all the places…</p>
<p>Harry nods. “Hermione was in a rage. They argued and then she set this flock of birds after him. Pecking at him and stuff.”</p>
<p>Ginny presses a hand to her mouth, mixed between horrified and impressed with Hermione’s ruthlessness.</p>
<p>“I suppose I should be thankful you only threatened to hex me.” He slides her a look. “And definitely didn’t yell.”</p>
<p>“That was hardly the same,” Ginny says immediately, the comparison bothering her for some reason. This was about Quidditch. The thing with Hermione and Ron…is something else entirely. Something much, much messier.</p>
<p>“I suppose not,” Harry says, something a bit funny in his voice. “Of course, Ron just thinks Hermione’s gone mental. He has no idea she…”</p>
<p>“Likes him,” Ginny says.</p>
<p>“Ugh, yes,” Harry says, like even thinking about it is the most uncomfortable thing ever.</p>
<p>“No accounting for taste,” Ginny says.</p>
<p>Harry doesn’t reply, loyal friend that he is.</p>
<p>“Poor, stupid Ron,” she says. “And poor Hermione.”</p>
<p>Harry nods, leaning back on his hand and using the other to rub at his eyes up under his lenses. “It’s a mess.”</p>
<p>“Poor you,” she says. “Stuck in the middle.”</p>
<p>He sighs. “Probably revenge for Hermione having to go back and forth between us fourth year.”</p>
<p>Ginny shakes her head. Those three certainly seem to love drama. “Well, having your best mates snogging each other isn’t much easier either, trust me.”</p>
<p>Harry drops his hand, looking over at her. “What?”</p>
<p>“You haven’t heard about Smita and Tobias?”</p>
<p>“No,” he says, sitting up a bit straighter. “I haven’t. They’re together?”</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah,” Ginny says. “Since end of last term. After—” She stops, not particularly wanting to bring up the Department of Mysteries and Sirius’s death. “After she was hurt.”  </p>
<p>Harry’s jaw tightens, looking away. Thinking about that night again himself, no doubt. “Well, I guess at least something good came out of it.”</p>
<p>“They are pretty disgustingly happy.”</p>
<p>He looks at her, studying her face. His thumb taps against his thigh rapidly a few beats before stopping abruptly. His shoulders seem to square. “Are you still going to Slughorn’s dinners?”</p>
<p>She’s a bit thrown by the abrupt change in topic. “Oh, yeah,” she says. “They aren’t <em>that</em> terrible.”</p>
<p>He gives her a look like he doesn’t believe that for a moment.</p>
<p>“You certainly seem to be doing an excellent job avoiding them.”</p>
<p>“I <em>had</em> been doing an excellent job,” he says.</p>
<p>She looks at him in question.</p>
<p>“He asked me my schedule before planning the Christmas party,” he says miserably.</p>
<p>She laughs. Slughorn is clearly desperate to get his prize jewel to show up for once. Especially with all of the visitors coming from outside the school. “You could always get thrown in detention. You seem to have a knack for that.”</p>
<p>“Don’t think I haven’t considered it,” he says darkly.</p>
<p>“Well, it shouldn’t be so bad. More of a mingle than a sit around the table and listen to him waffle on and on.”</p>
<p>“Have you…found someone to go with yet?” he asks.</p>
<p>She shakes her head, the fact that they are expected to bring guests having slipped her mind. “Got too caught up in Quidditch to think about, I suppose.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” he says like that makes total sense. She imagines he hasn’t thought about it much either.</p>
<p>“Maybe we should go together,” he says in a rush.</p>
<p>“What?” she asks, completely thrown, but that annoying feeling appearing in her stomach again.</p>
<p>“Uh,” he says, eyes darting around the space. “You know, save us the bother of finding anyone else.”</p>
<p><em>Right</em>, she thinks, stomach settling back down with an unpleasant thump. “Wow, I’m flattered.”</p>
<p>“No,” he says, eyes widening as he picks up on her sarcasm. “I didn’t mean—” He blows out a breath. “I just meant it’d be fun, you know, if I was there with you.”</p>
<p>She sits back, looking over at him. “Admit it, you just need someone to protect you from Slughorn.”</p>
<p>He grins. “And that.”</p>
<p>“You’re sure there’s no one else you’d rather go with?” she asks. “If the trials were any indication, there are more than enough people eager to get a date with The Chosen One.”</p>
<p>His face contorts with disgust. "They’d be sorely disappointed, trust me.”  </p>
<p>She bumps him with her elbow. “Don’t be ridiculous.”</p>
<p>He rubs at the spot with exaggerated care, like she’s injured him terribly, the idiot. “Besides, I bet not a single one of them would be willing to threaten me with a hex.”</p>
<p>She lets out a huff. “You’re a prat.”</p>
<p>He smiles back at her.</p>
<p>“Okay,” she says, even as a very loud voice at the back of her head is screaming that this a <em>terrible</em> idea. She’s just going to keep him company. Because he’s too lazy to ask someone for real. And frankly, so is she. It’s a logical solution to the problem.</p>
<p>“Really?” he says, sounding not a little unbelieving.</p>
<p>“Did you want me to say no?”</p>
<p>“No, no, no,” he says, shaking his head emphatically. “I just—okay. Good. Great. We’ll go together.”</p>
<p>“Safety in numbers,” Ginny says, trying to ignore the way it makes her feel to hear him say that. <em>We’ll go together.</em></p>
<p>“Right,” he says.</p>
<p>They sit there another long few moments.</p>
<p>Harry pushes to his feet. “Um, yeah. I should go make sure Ron and Hermione aren’t trying to kill each other again.”</p>
<p>Ginny nods. “Good luck with that.”</p>
<p>“I’ll come round your common room at eight? For the party?”</p>
<p>“Oh,” she says, just assuming they would meet there. “Okay.”</p>
<p>“Great. I’ll, uh, see you later.”</p>
<p>She nods. “Yeah.”</p>
<p>He gives her an awkward little wave only to wince mid-gesture. Grinning sheepishly, he turns and walks out.</p>
<p>Ginny sits and wonders what in the world she’s just agreed to.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry lies in bed looking up at his canopy. Nearby, he can hear the low rumble of Ron’s snores, the sound of Neville rolling over in bed. A log tumbling in the iron stove heating the room. The typical noises he’s come to associate with being home, ones that usually quickly put him to sleep.</p>
<p>It’s not helping tonight though, the same scene playing over and over again in his mind on repeat.</p>
<p>He’d really done it. He’d asked Ginny to go to the party with him. And she’d said <em>yes</em>.</p>
<p>The knowledge is like a warm bubble in his chest, pressing out against his skin. All these months of trying to pretend he just thought of her as a sister. A kind of annoying, rarely seen, correct far too often, very understanding, really talented, slightly scary, very attractive…sister. That he was just helping out to be nice. And clearly felt so happy around just because they both like Quidditch and they’re both trying to be captains, and that’s it, really. Just a friendly rivalry. Besides, she’s in Slytherin and is always with that prat Burke and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway.</p>
<p>But then she had said Burke was with Smita and didn’t even look upset about it, and his feeble excuses seemed to fall away in the moment and he’d just gone for it in a fit of impetuousness, riding the giddy energy he always seems to feel around her.</p>
<p>And she’d said yes.</p>
<p>They’re going to go to the party. Together. He’s going to pick her up. He imagines himself in the hall outside, seeing Ginny step out and smile at him, and maybe take his arm—but then he imagines all the other Slytherin students being there. Or even worse, Ron, staring daggers at him for daring to touch his little sister. But Ginny would probably just laugh and tell them all it wasn’t like that.</p>
<p>And this is where reality slams back into place, not just Ron or her bloody housemates, but because Ginny may not see this as anything more than a convenient arrangement because he bungled asking her so completely.</p>
<p>
  <em>You know, save us the bother of finding anyone else.</em>
</p>
<p>With a groan, Harry drags his pillow down over his face. What kind of a prat says something like that to a girl he likes? What kind of a hopeless dolt?</p>
<p>The kind who is desperate not to have her say no, he supposes.</p>
<p>Well, now he has a date with her, that she may or may not think is a date, and he still has to find a way to tell Ron, who may or may not ever speak to him again after finding out. Talk about the worst of both worlds.</p>
<p>There are still weeks until the party, he tells himself. She might change her mind. Or Harry might get killed or something. Maybe he <em>will</em> get detention. A Quidditch injury. A convenient accidental petrification. Ron might never need find out. Especially the way Ron spends most of his time with Lavender in increasingly disturbing displays of public indecency.</p>
<p>Or they might go to the party and Ron will be okay with it and Ginny might actually <em>want</em> to be there with him. Maybe he’d get to walk her back at the end of the night. Maybe he could kiss her.</p>
<p>With a hoarse laugh, Harry flops over onto his stomach and presses his face into the mattress.</p>
<hr/>
<p>The weeks crawl by. Dumbledore hasn’t called him in for another lesson and Quidditch practices have trailed off with the approach of then end of term exams, not to mention all the work the professors seem intent on loading them down in anticipation of the two-week holiday.</p>
<p>None of which is helped by the uncomfortable situation with Ron and Hermione that seems to have no end in sight. Harry spends half his time with a sullen Hermione as she pretends not to care one jot until they inevitably come across Ron being ridiculous with Lavender and then looks like she might cry or throw up.</p>
<p>The other half of his time Harry spends with a triumphant, cheery Ron, sometimes with Lavender still attached. Harry can’t even begrudge his mate his happiness, even if he is a prat about it sometimes. <em>Well, one day when you get a girlfriend…</em>he likes to say to Harry. </p>
<p>Of course, these days that only directs his brain in one direction, the one he can least afford it to go in when he’s around Ron.</p>
<p>He doesn’t see Ginny, which is pretty normal. Other than across the great hall at meals or passing each other on their way on and off the pitch, their lives don’t tend to intersect. He considers altering his walking paths in hopes of coming across her, but that might just give her an opportunity to tell him she’s changed her mind, and he’s not particularly keen to give her that chance. Looking at the map, he sometimes sees her in the cloister, but can’t quite work up the nerve to visit her no matter how much he’d like to see her.</p>
<p>There’s less than a week left until the party when Ron separates himself from Lavender long enough to hang out with him in the common room. Hermione retreats to the library.</p>
<p>Ron’s queen is picking Harry’s screaming rook up over her head when he asks, “Got yourself a date to that Slughorn party thing yet?”</p>
<p>Ron is usually put out by any mention of the Slug Club. But he’s been far more relaxed about things lately between ‘landing himself a girlfriend,’ as he put it, and the Quidditch victory. Harry doesn’t have a lot of hopes of that working to his benefit.</p>
<p>As the party gets closer and closer, more and more people in the castle seem to be talking about it, to Slughorn’s obvious delight. “If only I could allow everyone to come,” he has taken to saying, “but alas my rooms are only so big and I have ever so many old chums coming. It will be a mad crush as it is!”</p>
<p>Which just means that those not already invited are all angling to find a way to get a club member to ask them along.</p>
<p>“You should just take Hermione,” Ron continues, apparently assuming Harry has put the chore off until the last moment. Which, to be fair, is what he’d done last time he’d had to scrounge a date to a school event. And he probably would have this time as well if he hadn’t had a fit of insanity and actually asked Ginny.</p>
<p>And she’s said yes.</p>
<p>Harry prods his bishop forward, the piece clearly reluctant to take his orders. “Hermione already has a date.”</p>
<p>Ron looks genuinely surprised. “What? With who?”</p>
<p>Harry rubs at his nose. “McLaggen.” Apparently chosen by Hermione in a fit of pique in hopes of provoking Ron the most. A rash action she already seems to be regretting.</p>
<p>It seems to work though, Ron sitting up, all amusement evaporating. “That git?”</p>
<p>Harry bites back a sigh. “Why do you care?”</p>
<p>“I don’t,” he says, arms crossing over his chest.</p>
<p>“Right,” Harry says.</p>
<p>“Puts you in a bit of a pickle though.”</p>
<p>There’s a burst of giggles from the far corner where a clutch of girls sit together. He looks over just for them to all turn away and laugh even harder. He’s positive he hears one of them say ‘The Chosen One.’</p>
<p>“’Least it might be easier for you this time than the Yule Ball,” Ron says, a shit-eating grin on his face.</p>
<p>“I already asked someone,” Harry says, letting his mouth get ahead of him. Yet again. Christ.</p>
<p>“Yeah?” Ron asks, clearly surprised, and that only annoys Harry further. “Who? Finally give into Romilda Vane?”</p>
<p>“No,” Harry says, suddenly very aware of how many people are in the common room are listening in on this conversation.</p>
<p>Ron frowns. “Then who?”</p>
<p>Knowing there is no way to escape it forever, Harry shoves the words out. “I asked Ginny.” His face feels unnaturally warm, but he can only hope he’s imagining it.</p>
<p>“Ginny?” Ron says, looking confused. “Our Ginny?”</p>
<p>“No,” Harry says. “The other Ginny.”</p>
<p>Ron ignores his sarcasm. “Why would you ask Ginny?” he asks, like he honestly can’t imagine it.</p>
<p>Harry bites back the million easy reasons that automatically rise in his mind, settling on the safest answer. “She’s already going, so I figured why not go together?”</p>
<p>Ron seems to weigh that a moment. “I guess that makes sense. At least you can spend the night talking about Quidditch.” He shrugs. “You could probably do worse.”</p>
<p>Harry feels himself bristle at the implication that Ginny wouldn’t be anyone’s first choice. “Ginny’s fun.”</p>
<p>“She can be,” Ron concedes. “When she’s not being a complete terror.” A wide smile spreads over his face. “Of course, you know you might have to hang about with a bunch of bloody Slytherin.”</p>
<p>“They aren’t all that bad,” Harry says, even though he’s thought about that more than once. How awkward that would be. Maybe he’ll be able to avoid it.</p>
<p>Ron laughs at him. “I am very glad to be well clear of it. At least I don’t have to worry about Ginny, what with you to look after her. Now bloody McLaggen on the other hand…”</p>
<p>Harry sighs, sitting back and watching Ron’s queen obliterate his king as Ron continues to chunter on obliviously about Hermione’s date.</p>
<p>Somehow, Harry has the feeling this party is going to be the death of him.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Is there going to be dancing?”</p><p>Harry looks up from the mangled ends of his tie to see Neville sitting on his bed nearby. Of all the Gryffindor sixth years, Harry is the only one going to Slughorn’s Christmas party.</p><p>“Uh, I dunno,” he says, not having thought about that. Dancing in general is horrific, but if he were dancing with Ginny then maybe…</p><p>“From your expression, I assume you still have no clue how to do it,” Dean says.</p><p>Seamus laughs. “The Chosen One: can defeat dragons and dark lords, but trips over his own two feet.”</p><p>“Ha ha,” Harry mutters.</p><p>“No matter,” Seamus says. “Dancing’s just an excuse to hold ‘em as close as you can.” He jumps up on his bed, clutching an imaginary partner to his chest as he swivels his hips suggestively.</p><p>Dean roars with laughter, but Harry keeps his eyes on the mirror.</p><p>“Watch it,” Ron says, launching a pillow at Seamus.</p><p>“Oh, right! He is going with your own lovely sister, isn’t he,” Seamus says, grabbing the pillow and using it as his new imaginary partner, dipping it backwards. “Must be a bit awkward.”</p><p>“Not as awkward as having my fist in your face,” Ron mutters.</p><p>This only sets the two dolts off again.</p><p>Harry lets out a curse, giving up on his tie.</p><p>Ron crosses over. “I’ve taught you this charm a million times already,” he says, lifting his wand and easily guiding the ends of his tie into a knot. He’s always been better at these daily little domestic spells than Harry.</p><p>“I know,” Harry mutters. He looks at the tie, content that it’s good enough. “Thanks.”</p><p>Ron is giving him an assessing look that he doesn’t particularly like. “I think you’re as good as you’re ever gonna get,” he says, looking dubiously up at his hair.</p><p>Harry presses a hand down on it. “Gee, thanks.” Glancing at his watch, he walks out of the room.</p><p>“Have fun!” they yell after him as he leaves, Ron right behind him.</p><p>“Why are you so nervous?” Ron asks as they step out into the spiral stairwell.</p><p>Harry shrugs. “Bound to put my foot in it, aren’t I?” Public scrutiny and humiliation are pretty familiar to him at this point. But the thought of the evening going as spectacularly bad as his first date with Cho makes him want to dive back into bed.</p><p>Ron put his hand on Harry’s arm, tugging him to a stop. “What is this really?”</p><p>“What?” Harry says.</p><p>“You made it sound like going with Ginny was a way to get out of asking anyone else, but the way you’re acting… Is this a real date?”</p><p>Harry seriously considers lying, but he’s so shit at it he knows there’s not point. “I don’t know,” he bursts out.</p><p>“What do you mean you don’t know?” Ron asks, a bit incredulous, but not seeming too angry yet. “How can you not know?”</p><p>Harry tugs at his collar. “I mean I’m not sure if she thinks it’s a date.”</p><p>Ron’s eyes narrow. “But you’d like it to be.”</p><p>“If I say yes, am I going to get your fist in my face?”</p><p>“Stop it,” Ron says, swatting Harry’s hands away from his collar. “You’re going to ruin it.” He lifts his wand, and Harry can’t help but flinch back, assuming Ron’s finally going to get his hit in.</p><p>But after giving Harry a strange look, Ron just recasts the charm, fixing his tie for him. It doesn’t even tighten around his neck or anything. But he also doesn’t immediately put down his wand.</p><p>“You fancy her,” Ron says. “Ginny. Our sister.”</p><p>Harry almost reaches for his collar again, but stops himself, looking warily down at Ron’s wand still pointed in his direction. “Yes,” he admits, lifting his chin. If Ron wants to hex him for that, then he’ll just have to deal with it.</p><p>“Since when?”</p><p>Harry shakes his head, still having a hard time separating it from all the excuses he’s made for it. “A while,” he settles for saying.</p><p>“Why?” Ron asks.</p><p>Harry might take offense at that, but there’s nothing of mocking or disbelief in his tone, more like he really wants to know Harry’s intentions or something.</p><p>“Because she’s…she’s…Ginny,” he fumbles, not really sure what else to say. <em>Because she’s really pretty and I think about kissing her all the time and she’s fun to talk with and I feel different when I’m around her</em>. </p><p>“Real eloquent, mate,” Ron says. “You might want to come up with something a bit more specific in case Ginny asks you that. You know, when you’re trying to figure out if this is an actual sodding date or not. Honestly, how does someone even <em>do</em> that? Ask someone out and not ask them out at the same time?”</p><p>“We can’t all just grab someone and snog them in the middle of the common room,” Harry defends.</p><p>Ron gives him a hard look.</p><p>Harry realizes in horror what he’s said. “Not that there’s going to be—I didn’t mean—”</p><p>“You’re going to be late,” Ron says, giving him a shove a little perilously close to knocking him down the stairs. “If you’re going on a maybe-date with my sister, at least have the decency to be on time.”</p><p>They go down two more turns in silence.</p><p>“Are you really okay with this?” Harry asks right before they get to the common room.</p><p>Ron snorts. “Don’t think that matters much until Ginny decides if she’s okay with it.”</p><p>“Oh god,” Harry says. “Are you sure you can’t maybe punch me hard enough to make me miss the entire thing?”</p><p>Ron gives him another shove. “No one stands up my sister, arsehole.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ginny hasn’t heard a word from Harry since the day he asked her to the party. They’ve bumped into each other occasionally in the halls, but usually going opposite directions and in a rush to get to class.</p>
<p>She would wonder if he’s changed his mind, but he always smiles at her before disappearing off with her brother or Hermione—depending which shift he’s on at the time. So he doesn’t seem to be rethinking it, as far as she can tell.</p>
<p>She’s pushed forward with it all, sending an owl to her mum asking for a set of dress robes. Which Molly had definitely come through on, sending a gorgeous set of dark blue, slightly sparkly robes that are clearly meant to make up for the new broom Ginny wouldn’t let her parents buy for her.</p>
<p>They are easily the most extravagant robes she’s ever owned, and she would wonder if Molly somehow figured out just who her date is somehow, but shoves the thought aside.</p>
<p>“There,” Antonia says, leaning back from her face with a final flick of her wand. “I suppose you’ll do.”</p>
<p>Ginny turns to look at herself in the mirror. Her hair has been pulled half back, the rest hanging long in soft curls around her shoulders. Surely even Fleur would approve. Eyeliner and a golden dust of eye shadow make her eyes seem bigger than normal, a soft blush on her cheeks matching the light pink of her lips.</p>
<p>“Okay?” Antonia says.</p>
<p>“Amazing,” Ginny says. “I hardly look like me.”</p>
<p>Antonia rolls her eyes. “You just mean not wearing a ponytail and covered in sweat and dirt from practice.”</p>
<p>Ginny laughs. “Well, let’s hope my date can actually recognize me, or I might have to go alone.”</p>
<p>“I’m sure Harry will have no problem recognizing you.”</p>
<p>“Ah, but will I survive the scrutiny of being The Chosen One’s date?”</p>
<p>Antonia laughs. “I have faith in your ability to persevere. Now, should we go before our dates give up on us?”</p>
<p>She nods, nerves erupting in her stomach. “I guess so.”</p>
<p>They leave the seventh-year girl’s dorms, climbing up to the common room. There’s quite a few people milling about, some dressed and ready for the party like Hestia and Flora, others just watching the spectacle unfold. Zabini is impeccably dressed with Pansy on his arm, both looking slightly bored, like they are well above all of this, despite how aware they must be of the jealousy of other students without invitations. Pansy will no doubt lord it over anyone she can for the next month at least.</p>
<p>Antonia doesn’t even pause, the two of them going straight for the exit after giving Hestia and Flora waves. Lucas and Harry should be waiting for them there.</p>
<p>Feeling silly for doing it, Ginny still pauses at the door, taking a deep breath before stepping out.</p>
<p>The first person she sees is Lucas, wearing a rather daring shade of aubergine with what looks like copper trim. Her gaze doesn’t linger long enough to find out, because a few steps farther away stands Harry.</p>
<p>He’s is actually here. She tells herself this swell of relief is mostly to have to avoid the humiliation of being stood up so publicly. Yet another awkward aspect of going with Harry is knowing that everyone is watching. She’s been the recipient of more than one snide remark the last week as word finally leaked out about Ginny and Harry going together.</p>
<p>He’s wearing a smart set of dark green robes, his tie slightly askew as if he’s been tugging at it. The smile that spread across her face at first seeing him fades as he continues to stare at her, without speaking, his eyes wide.</p>
<p>“Ladies,” Lucas says, giving them a slightly absurd courtly bow. “You are looking exceptionally beautiful tonight.”</p>
<p>Antonia laughs. “Not as beautiful as you.”</p>
<p>“Yes, well, that would be impossible.”</p>
<p>Harry still hasn’t said anything, eyes sliding over to Lucas and Antonia as if he’s only just noticed them.</p>
<p>Lifting the hem of her robes, Ginny crosses over to Harry. “Hey,” she says, hoping her voice won’t betray her nerves.</p>
<p>“Hey,” he breathes out, smiling at her. “You’re, I mean, that’s a nice—” His eyes dart down to her dress only to immediately lift back to her face as if caught doing something wrong. He tugs at his collar, setting it even more askew.</p>
<p>Lucas looks between them, leaning into Ginny. “I think he’s trying to tell you how beautiful you look.”</p>
<p>Antonia gives him a repressive glance, sliding her hand into the crook of his arm and steering him down the hall.</p>
<p>“What?” Lucas says. “We’d be standing here all night, rate he was going.”</p>
<p>Harry looks comically annoyed and Ginny can’t help but laugh, probably just her nerves looking for any way out, and she finds herself folding her arms in front of her and leaning over in her mirth. “Merlin,” she says, feeling tears prick her eyes. “I’ll ruin my makeup.”</p>
<p>Straightening up, she looks at Harry, who is looking rather sheepish.</p>
<p>“You do look really…” he tries again.</p>
<p>“Nice?” she asks, grinning up at him.</p>
<p>He blows out a breath, seeming happy to laugh at himself. “Yeah.” He flaps a hand. “Floaty.”</p>
<p>She rolls her eyes. “Should we?” She gestures after Antonia and Lucas.</p>
<p>He gives her a faux bow, holding his arm out with exaggerated pretentiousness. She’s still laughing as she slips her hand into the crook of his elbow and follows after Antonia and Lucas.</p>
<p>“So,” Ginny says. “Time to place bets on the most salacious things to happen this evening.”</p>
<p>Harry slides her a look. “You mean like will the vampire forget himself and eat someone at the dinner table?”</p>
<p>She nods. “Or just how ridiculous on a scale of Lockhart-to-Trelawny Slughorn’s outfit will be?”</p>
<p>It turns out the rooms themselves are ostentatious enough to win the award on its own. The whole place has been draped with rich fabrics and hanging fairy lights with house elves wandering through with platters of food. It’s overwhelming and almost a little hard to look at.</p>
<p>“Subtle,” Ginny says, Harry snorting in response.</p>
<p>They no more than step through the door when Slughorn falls upon Harry, fawning over him and his excellent choice of companionship. And then he’s seizing him, pulling him off to introduce him to all of the guests, which seems to include a few members of the Weird Sisters and, yes, an actual vampire.</p>
<p>Harry gives Ginny a panicked look back over his shoulder as Slughorn drags him off, his hand groping for hers, pulling her along. He seems very intent on not losing her, so Ginny does her best to stay by his side through the series of introductions, most of which seem to be specifically aimed at being as unbearable for Harry as possible. She stands with him, her hand still firmly in his until it seems like Harry’s patience has been completely depleted.</p>
<p>She looks over the vampire’s head, ignoring the way he’s been staring at her neck, and waves her hand animatedly.</p>
<p>“Oh, Harry,” she says in a breathless voice, hanging on his arm like she’s completely helpless, “I just <em>have</em> to go see Flora!” She smiles up at the wizards. “You don’t mind, right?”</p>
<p>“Oh, no, no! Of course not!” they say, smiling at her like she’s a vacant child. “Take your escort, my dear.”</p>
<p>“Ah, young love,” Slughorn belts loudly as they make their escape.</p>
<p>“You are a life saver,” Harry mutters, his ears burning red.</p>
<p>“Well, I did promise to save you from Slughorn.”</p>
<p>Grabbing a few tasty looking treats on their way across the room, they run across Hermione. </p>
<p>Hermione nearly yelps as they bump into her, her hair and robes disheveled. “Oh, it’s you!” she says with real relief. Then she looks between them. “You look well together.”</p>
<p>Harry darts Ginny a look before turning back to Hermione. “What’s wrong?”</p>
<p>“Wrong?” Hermione says, pulling her sleeve back into place. “Oh, just Cormac. He’s a bit…persistent.” She lets out an uncomfortable laugh. </p>
<p>“Need me to take care of him for you?” Ginny offers.</p>
<p>Both Harry and Hermione look at her, seeming a bit alarmed.</p>
<p>“No need for that,” Hermione says. “I just need to—oh, no. Here he comes. Have a nice time!” And then she’s gone.</p>
<p>“I don’t know what she was thinking,” Ginny says. Having been on a handful of handsy dates herself, she knows how awful they can be.</p>
<p>“Mostly about getting back at Ron,” Harry says with a sigh.</p>
<p>Ginny shakes her head. “Lovely.”</p>
<p>They start moving through the crowd again, Ginny angling them away from Slughorn as best she can. She only realizes her hand is still firmly held in Harry’s when she’s able to tug him in a new direction when she sees them heading straight for Melinda Bobbin.</p>
<p>“Trust me,” Ginny says in an undertone when he looks at her in question. “That’s the last thing we need tonight.”</p>
<p>They end up tucked away in a corner, almost obscured by thick folds of fabric, happily dissecting the Hufflepuff-Ravenclaw match from the weekend before as they finish off their stash of snacks. Ginny’s team will have to face Ravenclaw right after the holidays.</p>
<p>“Their Keeper is the weak spot, I think,” Harry observes.</p>
<p>Ginny nods. It’ll really be a matter of slowing the game down enough to get their hands on the Quaffle. Her Beaters are going to have step up.</p>
<p>“We’re well matched at Seeker at least,” Ginny says.</p>
<p>“Dunno,” Harry says, sounding unconvinced.</p>
<p>She peers up at him. “You think Cho is that strong?” she asks, only partly wondering if this is some lingering loyalty to his ex-girlfriend.</p>
<p>Harry gives her a strange look, shaking his head. “No. The opposite. After all, I’ve learned not to underestimate Reiko.”</p>
<p>Ginny smiles. “Has she tracked you down and forced you into a Quidditch talk since the last match?”</p>
<p>Harry laughs, not seeming all that put out. “Once or twice.”</p>
<p>Ginny isn’t all that surprised. Once Harry proved that he wasn’t just messing with her, Reiko would no doubt throw off all hesitation at bugging Harry endlessly. “You brought that on yourself, Mr. Altruistic,” she says, pushing at his arm.</p>
<p>He blocks her hand with his own in an attempt to defend himself. “I suppose I did," he says, grinning. </p>
<p>He doesn’t let go of her hand, and she finds she doesn’t mind.</p>
<p>“Thanks for coming with me,” he blurts.</p>
<p>“You were right. This is fun.” More fun than she would have expected.</p>
<p>He smiles, his thumb brushing along the back of her hand and sending an avalanche of goosebumps up her arm. “Good,” he says, voice quiet. “Probably would have been pretty unbearable without you.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” she says, trying to ignore the warmth in her chest. “I have no doubt of your ability to defend yourself.”</p>
<p>“Maybe,” he says, head tilted down towards her.</p>
<p>Their eyes catch and hold, the two of them just looking at each other, and she is suddenly very aware of how close they’re standing, the warmth of his body next to hers.</p>
<p>A peal of laughter nearby has them both jumping apart.</p>
<p>Harry clears his throat, tugging at his poor abused collar. “Uh, why don’t I get you a drink?”</p>
<p>She nods. “Yeah. That’d be nice,” she says, thinking she wouldn’t mind a minute to pull herself together. “But first…” She reaches up, tugging his tie straight, running a hand down to make his lapel lie flat.</p>
<p>“Oh, uh, thanks,” he says, and Ginny feels a little foolish, pulling her hands back. What had possessed her to touch him like that?</p>
<p>She watches him walk off, or escape more likely. But then he sends a smile back her direction as he makes his way to the drinks table, almost running into a miffed-looking Pansy as he does.</p>
<p>Ginny looks away, biting back a laugh. Maybe coming with Harry wasn’t the worst idea after all.</p>
<p>A few moments later, there’s a bit of a to-do near the entrance, Ginny craning her neck in time to see Filch dragging Draco in by the scruff. “Caught him trying to sneak into the party,” he says, loud enough for most people to hear.</p>
<p>Draco looks so mortified and hacked off that Ginny almost feels sorry for him, everyone clearly gawking and reveling in his humiliation. Slughorn, for all he clearly finds the Malfoy’s ‘uncollectible ’, seems open to showing mercy, but then Snape is there, leading Draco away.</p>
<p>The room is loud with whispers as everyone processes what just happened. Ginny looks around for Harry, but he’s not by the drink table anymore. She frowns, scanning the room, and there he is, heading straight for the exit.</p>
<p>Leaving Ginny on her own.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry watches Snape lead Malfoy out of the party, his eyes narrowing.</p><p>What the hell is Malfoy doing skulking around the party? He isn’t even dressed for a party, and Harry doesn’t believe for a second that he was just trying to sneak in. Malfoy is glaring daggers at Snape, and Harry doesn’t even think twice about following, absently setting the two goblets in his hands down on a table.</p><p>This could be his chance to finally find out exactly what is going on, and what Snape has to do with it. To <em>prove</em> he isn’t imagining all of this.</p><p>He ignores one of Slughorn’s guests trying to catch his attention, pausing in the hall outside as he tries to figure out which direction they’ve gone in. He heads down one way before deciding he must have chosen wrong, doubling back at a fast clip. He slips his hand down into his pocket, groping for his invisibility cloak and pulling it free.</p><p>Before he can flip it up over his head, he hears a voice from behind him.</p><p>“Going somewhere?”</p><p>Harry stumbles to a stop, turning towards the entrance to Slughorn’s rooms. Ginny stands there, still looking more beautiful than anyone has a right, only now there is something not quite right about the way she’s holding her body.</p><p>Shit. Ginny. His <em>date</em>. How could he have possibly forgotten?</p><p>“No,” he says, despite how blatantly untrue that clearly is.</p><p>“Right,” she says, her face impassive, none of the warmth that had been there earlier. But there’s also something in her eyes that makes his gut burn.</p><p>“I just need to do something really fast,” he says, the excuse feeling weak and stupid the second he says it.</p><p>“Just going to the loo, huh?” she asks, lips twisting. It’s clear she knows exactly what he’s doing out here. She would have seen Malfoy like everyone else. Besides, one hardly needs an invisibility cloak for peeing.</p><p>“I’ll come back,” he says, furiously torn between losing Malfoy and pissing Ginny off. If it weren’t so important, he’d never…</p><p>“Don’t strain yourself on my account,” she says, voice clipped and icy. She turns, but rather than walking back towards the party, she heads down the hall, like she’s leaving.</p><p><em>Shit, shit, shit,</em> Harry thinks, glancing down in the opposite direction.</p><p>On impulse, he darts forward, grabbing Ginny’s hand, and setting back down the hallway with her in tow.</p><p>She protests, but he shushes her, nearly breaking into a run, trying to be as quiet as possible. Ginny is clearly unhappy, but he also trusts she won’t blow their cover when they aren’t supposed to be out here and might get detention for it. No, she’ll save yelling and hexing him for later.</p><p>They pass by a row of classrooms, Harry pausing briefly to listen outside each. Just as he’s starting to get desperate, he pauses outside the last door in the hallway, catching Snape and Malfoy’s voices, pressing his ear against the wood, able to hear everything they are saying.</p><p>He looks at Ginny, still standing in the middle of the hall. He waves her closer, lifting the invisibility cloak.</p><p>For a second he thinks she will refuse, her jaw set, but then she’s crouching down next to him, her ear pressing to the door.</p><p>He flips the cloak over the two of them, and settles in to listen, his face just a few inches from Ginny’s.</p><p>“…cannot afford to make mistakes, Draco, because if you are expelled—” Snape is saying.</p><p>Harry presses his ear closer.</p><hr/><p>Ginny’s shoe is cutting into her heel in a highly unpleasant way as she crouches next to Harry, listening to Snape admit to things like Unbreakable Vows and Malfoy talking about serving his <em>master</em>. It’s a lot, and Ginny’s barely taking it in at the moment, to be honest, too caught up in the stupid, stupid truth she should have seen from the start.</p><p>Which is only harder to deal with, Harry’s knee pressed up against hers, his hand only inches from hers on the door.</p><p>Draco’s voice is coming closer, and Harry’s eyes widen in alarm, but then he’s grabbing her, surging up and pushing her firmly back against the wall right next to the door. He ends up pressed completely against her as the door swings open, barely missing them, and for a moment Ginny’s brain completely fizzles out.</p><p>Draco storms by without so much as a look in their direction. Harry lets out a breath, the air rustling the hair framing Ginny’s face, and that does absolutely nothing at to help. Harry looks down at her, only now seeming to realize their current position. His mouth opens like he might apologize, but she presses her hand to his mouth as Snape finally steps out into the hall as well.</p><p>Snape lingers a moment, staring off into the direction Draco disappeared, and Ginny doesn’t even dare breathe, or think about Harry’s lips against her palm, the unreal amount of heat he seems to be giving off. It’s a really sodding inconvenient moment to register the warm woody smell that must be him or his soap or something, but either way, it’s making her head spin.</p><p><em>Focus, Ginny</em>.</p><p>Snape finally turns, heading back towards Slughorn’s party and disappearing inside.</p><p>Ginny lets out a breath, pulling her hand down from Harry’s mouth, fingers registering the slight roughness of his chin completely against her will. She shudders. </p><p>“Ginny,” he says. “Did you—"</p><p>“Not here,” Ginny hisses, wondering if he takes pride in getting caught.</p><p>He nods, glancing back in the direction of the party. “Cloister?”</p><p>She doesn’t exactly feel like going back to the party anyway, she tells herself, so it’s stupid to feel disappointed that this particular misguided evening is clearly at an end.</p><p>She nods.</p><p>Fortunately, it’s not too far because there is no way for them to walk under the cloak together, at least not in any way for Ginny to feel comfortable doing it. Harry walks at a fast pace, his eyes bright with a strange sort of intensity that leaves Ginny feeling inexplicably disgruntled, knowing it's about what they heard and not...</p><p>She ruthlessly cuts that train off thought off.</p><p>They’ve no more than stepped inside the cloister when Harry flings the cloak aside and crows, “I <em>knew</em> it!” He strides across the space. “I <em>knew</em> he was up to something. And Snape is in on it! You heard him! Serving his <em>master</em>. And I don’t believe him for a second that he wasn’t behind what happened to Katie. He was clearly lying, the slimy git.”</p><p>And so he goes on, repeating almost everything they heard with such zeal and conviction, that she rather quickly feels like he’s forgotten she’s even here. She wonders if she got up and left if he’d even notice. </p><p>She tells herself she’s being petty, the rational part of her brain pointing out that the overheard conversation was definitely worth being picked over. Potentially damning on many levels. She hasn’t even begun to process it, to be honest. Because all she can think about is what a nice time they’d had, what it had felt like when Harry pushed her back against the wall. The way even now as he paces and rants, what a dashing figure he cuts in his dress robes, and Ginny fully realizes in that moment what a complete fool she is. How much she’s let her feelings get away from her.</p><p>It had felt so…good, being at the party with him. But clearly it hadn’t meant as much to him. She was foolish to think it had. She can’t help but think of him offering to walk her back to her compartment on the train all those long months ago, realizing all he’d wanted to do was spy on Draco. Being with her had been beside the point entirely.</p><p>Her chest fills with a sharp pain, wondering if she is destined to make the same stupid mistakes when it comes to Harry Potter. <em>This was hardly a real date, Ginny. You were convenient.</em></p><p>Pushing to her feet, she walks towards the exit. She’s a writhing, roiling mess right now and wants nothing more than to escape. To take the time to think about this clearly. Because if she has to try to talk right now, she’s bound to say something she really, really regrets.</p><p>She hasn’t made it all that far when Harry calls out after her. “Where are you going?”</p><p>“Back to my room,” she says, not even able to look back at him right now.</p><p>He catches up to her, his hand on her arm, looking concerned like he actually cares. “Now? Already? If you’d rather go back to the party—”</p><p>“Why did you really ask me to go with you tonight?” she asks before she can stop herself, like the question has just been sitting on her tongue, <em>demanding</em> to be asked.</p><p>“What?” Harry asks, eyes shifting to side with clear guilt, and that’s it, that’s the last straw.</p><p>“Trying to get yourself a Slytherin spy to watch Draco for you?” she asks. “Going to ask me to sneak you into the common room?”</p><p>He blinks, having the audacity to look almost relieved. “No. That is not why I asked you.”</p><p>She shakes her head, not particularly in the mood to hear any more. “Sure,” she says, pulling her arm free and moving for the exit.</p><p>“It’s <em>not</em>,” Harry insists, still <em>pressing</em> and why can’t he just let her leave? </p><p>“Oh, really? Then why?”</p><p>“Because I bloody like you!” he very nearly shouts at her.</p><p>Ginny stills, feeling the anger melt almost instantly into something else. Something much worse. She slowly turns to look at him. “What?” she asks, her voice shaky and weak. </p><p>Harry closes his eyes, blowing out a breath and clearly steeling himself before stepping closer to her. “Because I like you, and if you’d gone with someone else, I’d have been tempted to set birds after them.”</p><p>Ginny feels her heart pounding away in her chest, even as her mind struggles to process that. “There’s no accounting for taste,” she quips, because she’s <em>stupid</em>.</p><p>Harry’s face just absolutely falls, like puppy that’s just been unexpectedly kicked. He turns away, sitting down on a tumbled marble block.</p><p>“Harry,” she says, taking a step towards him, even as she has no idea what to say.</p><p>“You really don’t think much of me, do you,” he says. </p><p>Ginny shakes her head, even as shame floods her body.</p><p>“First that I’d cheat you in the match. Now that I’d only ask you to the party to get you to do something for me.”</p><p>“That’s not true,” she says, not appreciating him turning this back around on her. She’s not the one who almost ditched him to go spy on an inane arch-nemesis, or whatever the hell Draco is to him.</p><p>He gives her a look of disbelief. “Yeah, it is. You were even suspicious of why I’d want to help Reiko with Quidditch!”</p><p>She wants to deny it, but the inescapable truth is that she <em>does</em> always seem to jump to the worst conclusions around him. Even she can't ignore it with the clear list of things she's done. “Maybe I do,” she forces herself to admit. “But it’s not because I think poorly of you.”</p><p>She can tell he doesn’t believe it. “Then why?”</p><p>Because it’s far easier to believe the bad things of him than to believe he actually likes her. Despite the fact that he just rather clearly told her that. Shouted it, really.</p><p>“Because I like you too,” she admits, knowing she’s felt this way far longer than she’s ever been willing to admit. Because it never mattered. It was never going to happen. Never <em>could</em> happen. So why be weak enough to want it? “And it’s easier to think those bad things than accept that you might…like someone like me.”</p><p>Harry’s pushed back to his feet. “Someone like you?”</p><p>She lifts her chin. “A Slytherin.”</p><p>“I don’t care,” he says.</p><p>She laughs. “You mean you’ll overlook it.”</p><p>He walks towards her. “No. That’s not—Merlin, I’m mucking this up. You were right, what you said last year. About seeing all Slytherin the same. I know that.”</p><p>“And yet you would have left me there,” she says, horrified to feel the prick of tears in her eyes. “For everyone to see.”</p><p>He lets out a sound of frustration. “I would have come back.”</p><p>“Would you?” she asks, not so certain herself. Harry is apparently willing to forget absolutely everything else when it comes to catching Draco or Snape doing something wrong. </p><p>He looks ready to immediately confirm it but has the grace to hesitate as if really thinking about it. “I don’t know. But I do know I would have felt like a right arse about it if I hadn’t.”</p><p>She lets out a humorless laugh. “I suppose that’s something.”</p><p>His jaw clenches. “I’m sorry. I really am. But I’m also right about Malfoy, and having everyone constantly telling me I’m imagining things or being petty or tilting at nargles or whatnot is driving me barmy!”</p><p>Ginny opens her mouth, but Harry cuts across her.</p><p>“And no, before you can accuse me of it, it’s not just because they’re both bloody Slytherin. You heard what they said!”</p><p>She wants to snap back at that, at this stupid obsession with Draco, but she can’t ignore what she heard. She doesn’t really know what it means just yet. But at the very least it’s suspicious. And he’s right, that she’s always jumping to the worse conclusions around him.</p><p>Harry stands a few feet away, staring at her like he’s waiting for her to turn and bolt any moment—like he’s torn between making his point and not wanting to drive her away.</p><p>Either way, this clearly means a lot to him. <em>Because I bloody like you!</em> </p><p>Taking a breath, Ginny sits, carefully settling her robes around her. “Start at the beginning.”</p><p>Harry looks wary, like he suspects a trap. “What?”</p><p>“With Draco. Start at the beginning. Why do you suspect him? And of what exactly?”</p><p>“Ginny, I’m not asking you to—”</p><p>“No,” she says, cutting across him. “You’re not. I’m offering.”</p><p>He still hesitates.</p><p>“If you don’t want to tell me—”</p><p>“I do,” he says, looking surprised by this himself.</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>He starts calmly enough, like he’s trying to prove how rational he’s being about it all, but as he talks more and more about Borgin and Burkes, what he saw on the train, his suspicions about Katie Bell, the way Draco’s been acting this year—giving up Quidditch, passing up prime chances to be a prick, walking around looking half dead—he ends up furiously pacing back and forth, like he feels the need to spill it all out before she can get a chance to tell him he’s wrong.</p><p>He eventually runs out of steam, turning to look at her, clearly braced for her reaction.</p><p>“Okay,” is all she says, still trying to take it all in, what it might mean. Not ready to express an opinion.</p><p>“He has the mark,” Harry presses, as if this is not the reaction he wants from her.</p><p>“The Dark Mark?” Ginny says, feeling the hairs on the back of her neck go up.</p><p>He nods, so certain of himself. “He was showing it to them on the train. You know what that means. He’s a Death Eater.”</p><p>She touches her own arm, fingers sliding up over her forearm and the tattoo there. “That isn’t always a choice.”</p><p>“What?” he says, walking over to her. He looks down at her arm.</p><p>She lifts her chin, resisting the urge to tug the fabric back down over her skin. Harry just stares down at it, his brow furrowed. “Everything always looks different from the other side,” he mumbles.</p><p>“I suppose so,” she says, feeling horribly exposed and not particularly liking the troubled look in Harry’s eye. She pulls her sleeve back down, getting to her feet. “It’s getting late.”</p><p>This shatters Harry’s immobility. “I’ll walk you back,” he automatically offers.</p><p>She shakes he head. She doesn’t need his misguided sense of chivalry. “It’s after curfew. And the opposite way for you.”</p><p>“I don’t care,” he says. He blows out a breath. “I mean, I <em>want</em> to.”</p><p>She hesitates, as always the weak part of her wanting to grab any excuse to spend more time in his company.</p><p>“At least let me do this one thing right,” Harry says. “Please.”</p><p>She nods.</p><p>He surprises her by offering his elbow, like he still doesn’t mind touching her, like that little green tattoo on her arm doesn’t change everything.</p><p>She slides her hand into the crook of his elbow.</p><p>They’re quiet as they work their way back across the castle. It’s not uncomfortable exactly, but it does feel heavy with everything said. Things still not said. She’s not sure which one of them is doing it, but they are walking slower and slower, the closer they get to the common room.</p><p>“This isn’t really how I wanted this evening to go,” Harry eventually says. “Just so you know.”</p><p>“And how did you want it to go?”</p><p>“Well, with a bit less arguing, I suppose.”</p><p>That startles a laugh out of her. “With us? Doesn’t seem likely.”</p><p>“Yeah,” he says, a rueful smile tugging at his lips. “I suppose not.”</p><p>Against her will, her hand tightens on his arm. “You must be regretting asking me now.”</p><p>Harry’s answer is immediate. “Not even a little.”</p><p>Despite herself, she finds herself leaning into his arm, wanting so much to believe that. He’s warm and close and there’s that scent that seems to go straight to her head. Despite every complication, this feels seductively simple.</p><p>“Me either,” she finds herself admitting.</p><p>“Ginny,” he says, pulling her to a stop as he turns to face her.</p><p>The way he’s looking at her makes everything slow, makes her feel hyper aware of how close he is standing, how alone they are. She’s still holding his arm, and his hand moves slightly, brushing her waist, almost like a question. She doesn’t move away, lifting her face to look at him.</p><p>And then he’s doing it, leaning in as if to kiss her, Ginny’s heart thudding away in her chest, something like anticipation tingling along her skin. Only he stops short, his eyes uncertain as he looks at her, like he’s worried about making another mistake.</p><p>So Ginny makes the mistake for him.</p><p>She lifts up to meet him, needing to know what this feels like. <em>Wanting</em> to know.</p><p>Harry’s hands grip her arms as her lips meet his, pulling her closer.</p><p>It’s nothing like her kiss with Kieran, which had been more of an unwelcome attack in her estimation, though had left her wondering if it was possible she didn’t just like kissing all that much. But kissing Harry disproves that almost immediately. His lips are warm and gentle, not really demanding anything, like just being here is more than enough for him.</p><p>She moves her free hand up to his neck, fingers sliding around to the curl of hair at the back of his neck, just wanting to touch him, to feel that this is real.</p><p>He makes a sound, something low and pleased, and on instinct she parts her lips, Harry immediately pressing closer. Everything only seems to fit together better now as his head tilts to the side.</p><p>Her back comes to a stop against the wall, Harry above her and around her, and it’s completely overwhelming in the best way possible, the kiss stretching on and on and on, so much more than she ever could have imagined.</p><p>The sound of voices approaching down the hall, clearly pissed as they alternate between loud singing and breathless attempt to hush each other, is what finally breaks them apart. Harry pulls back, distance widening between them as he looks back over his shoulder.</p><p>Ginny leans back against the wall and tries to breathe, part of her tempted to just ignore the intrusion, never wanting Harry to stop. But the smarter part of her brain knows what a bad idea that is. This intrusion of reality back into the situation.</p><p>Harry looks back at her, seeming a bit befuddled and looking very thoroughly kissed.</p><p>She’d done that. Put that look on his face.</p><p>“I should go,” she says, as much a reminder to herself.</p><p>“Yeah,” he says, looking reluctant, his arm tightening around her again.</p><p>Before she can be distracted, she slips out under his arm, reaching for the entrance latch. She really just needs to think about all of this. And something about Harry has always made thinking clearly particularly challenging.</p><p>She pauses in the doorway, looking back at him. “Night, Harry.”</p><p>“Night,” he says, hands shoved in his pockets as he smiles at her.</p><p>Letting the door swing shut behind her, she stops right inside the doorway, her hands going to her lips. There are so many things to think through, to consider more closely, but for now, she just stands there, never wanting the sensation to end.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It’s well past midnight by the time Harry climbs back through the portrait hole, and only partly because in his haze he’d taken a wrong turn and hadn’t noticed until he found himself near the kitchens. His brain is fuzzy, kind of like that time the Dursleys got really angry at him for doing something weird in front of the neighbors and hadn’t let him eat for two days. Only much more pleasant, mostly because his body, on the other hand, feels all warm and tingling with energy, something somehow even better than the first time walked into the Great Hall or flew on a broom.</p>
<p>“From the look on your face, it either went well or you’ve been hit with a confundus charm.”</p>
<p>Harry looks around, startled to see he’s standing in the middle of the common room. It’s mostly empty, the fire burned down, but with Ron sitting in his favorite chair.</p>
<p>“Oh, hey,” Harry says, hastily wiping a hand across his mouth for fear that rather enticing pinkish color Ginny’d had on her lips at some point had transferred to his, not realizing until he’s midway through the gesture exactly how damning it looks.</p>
<p>Ron’s eyes narrow. “You know Hermione came back hours ago.”</p>
<p>Harry comes around to stand near the fire. “Waiting up for her?” he says, hoping to deflect onto a different topic as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>“No,” Ron defends. “But wondering where you’d wandered off to. It’s nearly 2!”</p>
<p>“We were talking,” Harry says. “Got into a bit of a row, if I’m honest.”</p>
<p>Ron actually seems relieved to hear it. “Ah, so you <em>were</em> hexed. She must not have been so keen on the idea of dating your lanky arse.”</p>
<p>“No,” Harry says. “It was just…a misunderstanding.”</p>
<p>“You mean you screwed something up.”</p>
<p>Harry blows out a breath. “Pretty much. I told you that would happen.”</p>
<p>“Yeah, well, Slytherin,” Ron says with a wave of his hand. “Who can fathom them?”</p>
<p>“She’s not—” Harry starts to defend, only to check himself. “I mean she is. But she’s also perfectly fathomable.”</p>
<p>Ron laughs. “Oh, she is, is she?”</p>
<p>Harry winces. “<em>Mostly</em>.”</p>
<p>“So <em>are</em> you dating then? Am I going to have to put up with this on a regular basis?”</p>
<p>“Oh,” Harry says, frowning. “I don’t know. I mean, I think so.” They hadn’t actually gotten around to talking about that. He hadn’t asked when he could see her again or anything.</p>
<p>Granted, they are all going back to the Burrow for the holidays tomorrow. Two weeks of living in the same house. Seeing each other every day. Eating meals together. That at once sounds amazing and horrifying. What if she changes her mind? What if the kiss was so bad that she has no interest in doing it again?</p>
<p><em>No</em>, he immediately thinks, remembering their kiss. It was a very good kiss. Compared to that one soggy kiss with Cho it would be hard not to be better. But this was so much better.</p>
<p>He’s touching his lips again, and Ron probably really will punch him if he can’t pull himself together.</p>
<p>“You came back from a successful date looking more snogged than I ever want to think about, thank you very much, and you don’t know if you’re dating?” Ron gets to his feet. “Seriously, mate, you’re such a mess I can’t even be mad at you for going after my sister.” He makes a gagging sound. “Ugh, I don’t even want to think about it.”</p>
<p>Harry nods, supposing that’s best for everyone, as weird as it will be having something he can’t talk to Ron about. Following Ron up the stairs to their room, Harry thinks about what it will be like tomorrow, seeing her at breakfast. If she’ll look over at him and smile. It’s too bad they can’t sit together. But maybe on the train they can. Maybe they will find themselves alone for a few minutes somehow. Maybe they’ll be able to—</p>
<p>“I don’t think I’ve seen you like this in a long while,” Ron says.</p>
<p>Harry blinks, wrenching his poor brain back to his best mate. “Like this?” he asks, fairly certain he acted pretty loopy when he got a Beater bat to the head that one time.</p>
<p>Ron shrugs. “Happy.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” Harry says, wondering if that is what this feeling is.</p>
<p>Ron slams his shoulder into Harry’s. “Don’t get too comfortable though. No way the rest of my brothers are going to be so forgiving about the entire thing.”</p>
<p>Harry groans, even as he knows without a shadow of a doubt that Ginny is worth any bother.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry’s left his packing to the last possible moment, of course, mostly because he’s been far too focused on other things the week leading up to their departure. He and Ron both pull themselves out of bed blearily and begin chucking things together.</p>
<p>“Late night, Harry?” Seamus calls out.</p>
<p>“Shut it,” Ron mumbles, kicking some of his books under the bed, clearly having no intention of doing any of the ‘getting ahead reading’ they’ve been assigned over the hols.</p>
<p>They drop their hastily selected things off in the entryway to be taken the train for them before heading into the Great Hall.</p>
<p>People turn and stare as they enter, but Harry’s pretty much used to that and so barely notices, too busy looking at the Slytherin table. At first glance, he doesn’t see Ginny. He eventually locates Smita and Tobias, but Ginny isn’t with them.</p>
<p>The nervous, warm energy in his stomach hardens a bit, his brain whirring through all the reasons she might not be there. Is she sick? Did she just oversleep? Not hungry?</p>
<p>Is she avoiding him?</p>
<p>Ron give him a little push. “Hey, eat now, ogle my sister later.”</p>
<p>“Shove off,” Harry mutters, sitting next to Ron at the Gryffindor table and reaching for some toast. Unfortunately, the Slytherin table is behind him now, settling in like an itch at the back of his neck. But if he shifts slightly, he at least has a view of the entrance, able to keep track of everyone coming in.</p>
<p>“Where d'you reckon Hermione is?” Ron asks around a mouthful of bacon.</p>
<p>Harry wrenches his eyes away from the entrance, glancing down the table and only now noticing that Hermione is missing. “Dunno.”</p>
<p>Ron’s eyes are firmly on his plate. “Maybe you should bring some stuff for her,” he says. “She’ll be hungry.”</p>
<p>It’s only in consideration of how understanding Ron’s been with the whole ‘maybe dating his sister’ thing that Harry decides not to say anything about his preoccupation with Hermione’s well-being. Despite all the tension between the two of them these days, they have been best friends for a long while, after all. Which is how Ron would no doubt defend it himself. </p>
<p>“Sure,” Harry says. “Good idea.”</p>
<p>There’s bags and foil on the table like there always are on the days they leave the castle for holidays. Mostly for lunch on the train, but Harry also usually stocks up on a few extra things, especially when he’s going for the summer. He never knows what kind of weird food restrictions might be going on with the Dursleys. He won’t have that issue with the Weasleys, but still packs up a few things. After pausing another moment, he packs an additional bag with some things for Ginny. Just in case.</p>
<p>“Help me with my things, Ron-Ron?”</p>
<p>Harry looks up to see Lavender smiling down at Ron, leaning into his space, her hand on his shoulder. Ron grins up at her, seeming to puff up a bit under her attention.</p>
<p>“Sure,” he says, shoving one last giant bite of eggs in his mouth before pushing to his feet. He claps a hand on Harry’s shoulder. “See you in London, mate.”</p>
<p>Harry nods. It’s an unspoken understanding that since Harry and Ron will be spending the entire holidays together, Harry will keep Hermione company on the train. They’re getting pretty good at this ridiculous shared-custody friendship at this point.</p>
<p>Harry sighs, focusing down on eating, not tasting much as he continues to stare at the door. When he can’t put it off anymore, he gets to his feet, following the general flow of lively, chatting students towards the carriages. His own mood is deflating by the moment.</p>
<p>He runs across Hermione near the stairs, Crookshanks clutched to her chest and a rucksack likely full of books on her back.</p>
<p>“Oh, hi, Harry,” she says, seeming distracted.</p>
<p>“Don’t tell me you actually put off your packing to the last minute,” Harry says as he falls into step next to her, having a hard time believing it.</p>
<p>“Of course not,” she says, affronted. “I’ve been packed since Wednesday.” She glances around at the crowd of students. “I would just rather make it home without having to see Cormac again.”</p>
<p>“That bad, was it?” Harry asks, wondering if he and Ron are going to have to have words with McLaggen. Ron would probably be all too happy to.</p>
<p>She shakes his head. “It’s fine. He just seems incapable of taking a hint. Just because I went to one party with him hardly means I want to be his girlfriend or something!”</p>
<p>“Right,” Harry says as they climb up into a carriage together, the thestrals turning back to look at them, feet shuffling.</p>
<p>“What about you? Did you have a nice time last night? Did things go well with Ginny? I couldn’t find you again.”</p>
<p>Harry doesn’t answer as Jimmy, Ritchie, Demelza, and Roper climb into the carriage, Harry and Hermione budging over to make room for them. They all greet each other.</p>
<p>Fortunately, before Hermione can press for more details about his date with Ginny in front of them, Jimmy starts in on Quidditch, specifically the upcoming Ravenclaw-Slytherin match, picking up on a conversation already in progress.</p>
<p>Hermione sighs, pulling out a book like she can’t stand even a ten-minute conversation about Quidditch.</p>
<p>“Bit obvious who’s gonna win,” Roper says.</p>
<p>“Dunno,” Demelza says. “I was surprised how good Slytherin was.”</p>
<p>“Ravenclaw is going to run them over,” Roper says, slapping his hands together in arrogant confidence.</p>
<p>Harry resists scowling at him.</p>
<p>“You didn’t play them,” Ritchie points out. “Their chasing side is tight and quick. And their Seeker pulled one over on Harry easily enough!”</p>
<p>“Well, maybe now we know why,” Jimmy says, looking over at Harry with a grin. “He must have been too distracted staring at something else.”</p>
<p>“<em>Someone</em> else, apparently,” Demelza adds, grinning.</p>
<p>Harry is not amused by the teasing. “I’m still your captain, I’ll have you know.”</p>
<p>Jimmy turns to Ritchie. “I think he’s threatening us with laps. Wonder if that means his date last night went very well or really terribly.”</p>
<p>“Come on, Harry,” Demelza says. “We’re your teammates. Give us something to spread around and make us the envy of all other students.”</p>
<p>“Oh, look,” Harry says, nearly climbing out of the carriage before it comes to a full stop. “We’re here.”</p>
<p>“Told you,” Jimmy mutters.</p>
<p>“You’re no fun, Harry!” Demelza calls out after him.</p>
<p>Harry takes Hermione’s arm, pulling her down the platform and away from his teammates.</p>
<p>“Slow down,” Hermione hisses, still trying to shove her book back in her bag. “We’re hardly going to miss the train.”</p>
<p>Harry dutifully slows his step. They get on near the middle of the train, automatically turning towards the front compartments. Pausing, Harry glances towards the back of the train, the compartments usually filled with Slytherin students.</p>
<p>“If you’d rather sit with Ginny, you can,” Hermione says.</p>
<p>He blinks at her. “Down there?” It hadn’t even occurred to him to just barge in on a compartment full of Slytherin students. He shakes his head. “I’ll stay with you.”</p>
<p>He tells himself he’s just keeping his best mate company. They pass by a compartment with Ron, Lavender, the Patil twins, Dean, Seamus, and Lisa Turpin all crammed in together, laughing and talking and looking like they are having the time of their lives.</p>
<p>Hermione stares straight ahead as they pass. The first empty compartment they find, they go into without comment, Hermione settling Crookshanks on her lap as she gazes out the window.</p>
<p>Harry sits across from her, at a loss what to say. “I brought you some breakfast,” he says, pulling out the bag.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” she says, giving him a half-hearted smile. “That was thoughtful of you.”</p>
<p>Harry isn’t sure of the wisdom of it, but thinks she deserves to know all the same. “It was Ron’s idea,” he says. “He worried you’d be hungry, missing breakfast.”</p>
<p>“Oh,” she says, looking down at the food.</p>
<p>They’re quiet as the train pulls out of the station, each of them occupied with their own thoughts.</p>
<hr/>
<p>Ginny is a bundle of nerves as she steps onto the train. Her patience has already been stretched dangerously thin, not helped by the fact that she’s tired from a rather restless night, even if pleasantly so.</p>
<p>Just like she suspected, everyone in the castle seems to know that she went with Harry to the party. And that they left early. Speculation is rampant.</p>
<p>Despite avoiding breakfast, she’s already overheard speculation that she love-potioned Harry, blackmailed him somehow, or that he was merely giving a pity date to his best mate’s pathetic little sister.</p>
<p>With effort, Ginny bites back any reaction, more than aware that the chance to go with Harry to Slughorn’s party had been a commodity very much in demand among certain students. It would be one thing, she supposes, if they just realized how great Harry is, if they had feelings for him, but mostly she gets the impression that there is great romantic interest in the fabled Chosen One. Like it’s <em>glamorous</em> or something.</p>
<p>If she’s outraged on anyone’s behalf, it’s Harry’s. Those stupid people never saw Harry after Sirius’ death, hadn’t been there when his ‘glamorous’ destiny took them to the Department of Mysteries, fighting fully grown Death Eaters for their very lives. Hadn’t seen the rage of grief as he’d torn after Bellatrix. His quiet devastation in the dark of the infirmary after.</p>
<p>
  <em>Could you kill? If you had to?</em>
</p>
<p>The urge to hex people is rising again.</p>
<p>She’s following Smita and Tobias into a compartment when she’s almost certain she hears a half-swallowed accusation of <em>slag</em> follow after her.</p>
<p>Ginny has zero doubt Smita and Tobias hear it too, their shoulders stiffening. Ginny lets the door close behind them, sitting down across from her friends.</p>
<p>Smita hands her an egg sandwich without comment.</p>
<p>“Thank you,” Ginny says, thinking she could do with a jolt of caffeine even more, when Tobias pulls out a capped jug of tea. “Bless you.”</p>
<p>Ginny tucks in, not unaware of people peering in the compartment from time to time. Each time someone goes by, Ginny finds herself looking up. Each time disappointed to see someone just peering in out of curiosity, rather than seeing Harry.</p>
<p><em>Like he’d come down to this end of the train if he weren’t spying on Draco</em>, the cynical part of her brain says.</p>
<p>“Okay, I’ve held this back long enough,” Tobias announces.</p>
<p>Ginny gives him a wary look, not missing that Smita appears more amused than annoyed.</p>
<p>“I am highly disappointed in you, Miss Weasley,” he continues.</p>
<p>Ginny rolls her eyes. “I suppose I’ll have to find a way to live with the burden of that.”</p>
<p>“I always thought you had better taste than that. Potter’s like…the most Gryffindor to ever Gryffindor,” he says, disgust lacing his tone.</p>
<p>“I suppose that’s a no to double-dating,” Ginny says.</p>
<p>Tobias leans towards her. “So <em>that’s</em> what this is. Quite an involved plan just to get back at me for the Harper thing. My faith in you is completely restored.”</p>
<p>“Wonderful,” Ginny says.</p>
<p>“You really like him,” Smita observes.</p>
<p>“Your boyfriend?” Ginny says around a bite of sandwich. “Not particularly.”</p>
<p>Tobias sticks his tongue out at Ginny, but Smita is undeterred or just used to them at this point.</p>
<p>“Harry,” she clarifies. “You like Harry.”</p>
<p>Ginny takes another large bite to buy herself a moment, wondering if she could get away with a vague shrug. To judge from Smita’s expression and the way Tobias is pretending to look completely disinterested, she imagines not.</p>
<p>“He’s…” she eventually says, trailing off.</p>
<p>“Yes?” Tobias prompts.</p>
<p>She thinks about what it feels like to be around him, how there is always something interesting to talk about, how sharply sarcastic he can be, how blindingly reckless. She can’t say she feels comfortable around him, exactly. He’s a bit of an enigma. But she also feels like she doesn’t have to think so much around him, as terrifying as that can be. The way everything went quiet in her head when he leaned closer…</p>
<p>“Complicated,” Ginny settles on saying.</p>
<p>Tobias and Smita share a look, something seeming to pass between them.</p>
<p>“Well,” Tobias says. “I doubt you’ll ever be bored. But don’t come crying to us when he pulls you into more ill-conceived disasters. My bonding with Gryffindor days are at an official end.”</p>
<p>To Ginny’s great relief, they shift to talking about other things for a while. Mostly innocuous gossip about other people provided by Tobias. Smita telling them about her holiday plans, the sheer amount of relatives that are set to descend upon her house.</p>
<p>“Ah, cousins,” Ginny says with a laugh.</p>
<p>Smita shakes her head. “And nearly all of them boys. Meaning I’ll be the one stuck in the kitchen with my aunties all week.”</p>
<p>“A domestic goddess. How sexy,” Tobias says, smiling down at her.</p>
<p>Smita’s expression doesn’t shift. “Are you angling for an invitation? Because Mum has been after me to meet you. And my aunts and uncles, and cousins. Grandparents.” She gives him an innocent smile that clearly belies the evil, evil heart underneath.</p>
<p>Tobias seems to pale, and Ginny just laughs and laughs.</p>
<p>With a half a pot of tea and breakfast in her, Ginny’s mood starts to rally, and she realizes how ridiculous she’s being. Obviously, she doesn’t care what the other students think of her. Besides which, she won’t see any of them for two weeks, which will give her plenty of time to devise an approach to the problem. Or for them to just grow bored.</p>
<p>No, the more pressing issue is what waits for her at the other end of this train ride. Two weeks with her parents and brothers. And Harry. She realizes the benefits of dealing with seeing Harry again for the first time now rather than in front of her family. Even if he’s probably sitting with Ron.</p>
<p>Ginny takes a deep breath and gets to her feet. Neither Smita nor Tobias bother asking where she’s going.</p>
<p>“Do you want any company?” Smita offers instead.</p>
<p>Ginny shakes her head. “I’m good. Thanks.”</p>
<p>“Godspeed,” Tobias says, giving her a jaunty little salute.</p>
<p>Ginny steps out into the hall. Fortunately, at this point in the journey most people have settled in one spot, so there aren’t too many people out and about.</p>
<p>She passes by a compartment with Zabini and Pansy holding court, snide laughter floating out into the corridor. Ginny glances in, seeing Draco sitting back against the seat, jaw tight as he stares out the window, clearly not participating.</p>
<p>She thinks of his cutting voice as he spoke to Snape the night before.</p>
<p>Moving on before anyone can notice her, Ginny shoves the mystery of Draco and Snape aside, knowing that is another thing to take some time analyzing over the holidays. She has a more pressing issue at the moment. She walks past Ravenclaw students and then Hufflepuffs, finding a mixed compartment with Luna, Neville, Susan, and Ernie.</p>
<p>Luna and Neville look up at her and wave as she passes. Ginny smiles and waves back.</p>
<p>She’s nearly at the front of the train with no sign of Harry by the time she comes across a compartment holding the Patil twins, Seamus, Dean, and against the window Ron with Lavender perched practically on his lap. Meaning Harry must be sitting with Hermione somewhere.</p>
<p>Ron sees her peering into the compartment and points further down the train, clearly certain he knows who she’s looking for. She rolls her eyes and he gestures to his own eyes and then back at her.</p>
<p>
  <em>I’m keeping an eye on you, sis.</em>
</p>
<p>Ginny shoots him a good-natured two-finger salute and keeps walking. Sure enough, the next compartment is nearly empty. She sees Hermione first, tucked against the window, a book held up to her nose. Harry sits across from her, slouched down and staring out the window, his hand listlessly tapping at the window frame.</p>
<p>He’s wearing Muggle clothing now—worn, slightly too big for him trousers and a faded button-up. A far cry from the elegant dress robes of the night before. She thinks she prefers this though, Harry relaxed and comfortable and just very…him.</p>
<p>She feels her breath catch in her throat, realizing how stupid she’d feel if anyone caught her standing out here staring at him. A compartment door slides open a bit further down, some seventh-year Hufflepuffs stepping out.</p>
<p>Reaching for the handle, Ginny pulls the door open, quickly stepping in. “Hi,” she says.</p>
<p>Harry sits up so quickly he nearly slides to the floor. He slams an arm out on the seat next to him to right himself. “Ginny.”</p>
<p>Hermione looks up from her book, only to immediately look back at Harry and then to Ginny again. She gets a look on her face suspiciously like the ones she just endured from Smita and Tobias.</p>
<p>She takes another step in, letting the door close behind her. “Thought I’d come down and see how you two are doing,” she says, glancing at Hermione.</p>
<p>“That’s nice,” she says, something in her tone suggesting she isn’t fooled even a little.</p>
<p>“You weren’t at breakfast,” Harry says, only to look immediately embarrassed to have noticed.</p>
<p>“Oh, yeah,” she says, knowing nothing on this earth would have convinced her to face a hall full of students this morning. “Guess I had a bit of a lie in.”</p>
<p>He nods. “Did you get anything to eat?”</p>
<p>“Smita grabbed something for me.”</p>
<p>“Oh, good.”</p>
<p>Silence falls between them, something more awkward and terrible the longer it last, pixies tumbling about in Ginny’s stomach, only then Harry smiles at her, something tentative and unsure, but no less authentic, and the pixies don’t go away, exactly, but they become far more pleasant.</p>
<p>
  <em>Because I bloody like you.</em>
</p>
<p>Hermione isn’t even pretending not to be watching them with what seems to be increasing amusement. “Why don’t you sit down?”</p>
<p>“Oh, right,” she says, looking at Harry.</p>
<p>“Yes,” Harry exclaims. He picks up the bag of what looks like pilfered food from the breakfast table off the spot next to him, making room for her. He looks around for somewhere else to put it, eventually settling it on the small window ledge.</p>
<p>Right, she thinks. Sit down. Next to Harry. It’s a long bench, but sitting at the opposite end is just silly, so she instead lowers herself next to him.</p>
<p>She immediately considers that she’s sat a bit too close to him, picking up on that scent again, but Harry just gives her a big smile like he’s really glad she’s here.</p>
<p>“I never did get to ask you how last night went. Did you have fun?” Hermione asks.</p>
<p>“Oh. Yeah,” Ginny says, very aware of Harry watching her. “It was very…” She pauses, not really sure what to say.</p>
<p>“Eventful,” Harry supplies.</p>
<p>Ginny laughs in a rush of relief. “Yes.” She nods. “Eventful.”</p>
<p>Harry shifts, his arm brushing up against hers. “Hardly a dull moment.”</p>
<p>Ginny's starting to feel very strange, like she’s a moment away from laughing or floating out the window, as bizarre as that sounds. “Wonder if the vampire ever actually bit anyone,” she muses in an attempt to focus.</p>
<p>“Ah, yes,” Harry says, turning towards her. “We need to know for our bet.”</p>
<p>She glances at him, smiling. “Our bet that we never actually made terms for?”</p>
<p>He shrugs, his eyes gleaming. “Well, it’s the winning that matters, not so much the prize.”</p>
<p>That airy, pressing feeling is only growing. “Of course.”</p>
<p>Their eyes seem to catch, like neither of them can look away, and Ginny feels like she’s back in that dark corridor, like Harry is at once far too close and too far away. It’s like a spell weaving around them, and it only breaks when Harry’s eyes dart up over her head. She turns to see people in the hall gawking as they pass by, walking slower and necks craning as they try to get a good thorough look. Which is only doubly ridiculous because there is very little reason to walk forward of the compartment, the loos and food cart being further back.</p>
<p>Ginny sighs, scrunching down in the seat. “So much for not being the newest attraction in the rumor mill.”</p>
<p>Harry glances over again, brow furrowing. He’s spent most of his school days being gawked at. She really hadn’t meant to add to that.</p>
<p>“Maybe I should go,” she says, shifting to get to her feet.</p>
<p>“Already?” Harry says, his hand reaching out to touch her arm. He looks down at it, looking almost startled that he’d done it. “I mean, you just got here.”</p>
<p>It’s not like she just walked in. It’s probably been ten minutes at least. But the fact that Harry seems to want her here definitely makes her want to linger.</p>
<p>Hermione is the one to break the stalemate, pushing to her feet.</p>
<p>Harry looks at her. “Where are you going?”</p>
<p>“To give you two some time alone,” she says, not even bothering to come up with a convenient lie.</p>
<p>“You don’t have to do that,” Ginny says, feeling her heart thud in her chest.</p>
<p>Harry looks between them, apparently torn between the thought of some time alone and driving off his best mate when she’s still rather heart-broken over their other best mate.</p>
<p>What a disaster.</p>
<p>Hermione picks up her bag. “It’s fine. After all, the moment you step off this train, Ron isn’t going to give you two a moment of peace.”</p>
<p>Harry turns to look at Ginny with wide eyes, like he’s realizing the truth of her statement. The full implications of two weeks at the Burrow together surrounded by her family.</p>
<p>Noise from the train filters in as Hermione opens the compartment door and steps out.</p>
<p>Harry barely seems to notice.</p>
<p>“You really didn’t think this through, did you?” Ginny asks as the door closes again.</p>
<p>Harry slowly shakes his head. “No, not really.”</p>
<p>“Bit of an impulse for you, I see.” She’s not sure how to feel about that.</p>
<p>He turns towards her. “No. I mean, <em>yes</em>, but I’d been thinking about it for a long while.”</p>
<p>“Thinking about what?”</p>
<p>His eyes dart down to her lips, and it takes a lot not to lick her lip in response, or get derailed by memories of last night’s—this morning’s?—goodnight kiss. His eyes lift back up to hers. “Asking you to go to Hogsmeade with me. Or anywhere, really.”</p>
<p>She isn’t sure what to do with the idea that he’s been thinking about her for a while. “So that Quidditch help wasn’t quite so altruistic after all.”</p>
<p>His lips twitch. “I did want to help you with Quidditch,” he says, shifting closer in his sincerity. “I just also…wanted to be around you.”</p>
<p>“Is that all?” she asks, or goads, really, and she has no idea where this is coming from, the way Harry makes her every inner thought blurt out of her mouth. And right now all she can think about is how much she wants him to kiss her again.</p>
<p>Harry doesn’t seem to have a problem with it though, leaning towards her, and she feels her eyelids lowering, hyper aware of how close they are, how alone. He glances up when someone apparently peers in at them, and he grabs his wand, flicking a spell at the windows to make them opaque.</p>
<p>Of course, that isn’t going to do <em>anything</em> for the rumors, but she can’t bring herself to care right now.</p>
<p>His hand brushes her jaw, fingers pressing lightly just below her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. “Ginny,” he says. “Is this—I mean—are we, you know, together?”</p>
<p>She’d been wondering that herself not too long ago, she remembers, only know it seems far less murky. “You kiss a lot of people like that?”</p>
<p>“N-no no! Of course not. It’s just, you were mad and then you weren’t but then you were mad <em>again,</em> and I just…want to know if you…”</p>
<p>She touches his arm, her palm resting against his sleeve, feeling the heat of his body underneath. “If I would send a flock of birds after you for kissing someone else?”</p>
<p>He lets out a breath. “Yeah.”</p>
<p>The thought of it unfurls in her chest, something sharp and cold like ice. She hadn’t felt this when she saw him kissing Cho the year before. But then she’d barely known him at that point. And hadn’t known what it was like to kiss him herself, to have him look at her like this. Hadn’t really let herself consider why she enjoyed being around him so much. Even entertain the possibility…</p>
<p>“I wouldn’t,” she says.</p>
<p>His expression falls, and Ginny tightens her hand on his arm.</p>
<p>“Only because I’d do something far more subtle, like a relentless itch in your pants. Curse your broom to be just slow enough to make you think you’re losing your mind. U-No-Poo in the treacle tart. That sort of thing.”</p>
<p>Harry grin has been widening as she speaks, like hearing all the horrid things she’d do to him is a comfort. “Then I guess it’s a good thing I’m not interested in kissing anyone but you.”</p>
<p>She nods, heart fluttering in her chest. “A very good thing,” she says. “And only one way to make it even better.”</p>
<p>“Happy to help,” he says, leaning in and kissing her.</p>
<p>His lips are warm against hers, growing gently insistent as they linger, everything else fading away.</p>
<p>Students continue to pass up and down the corridor, rumors swirling and growing unnoticed by them as the train sways its way down the track towards home.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry can confidently say that he has never passed quite so pleasant of an afternoon on the Hogwarts Express in his life. </p><p>And it’s not just because he gets to spend a great deal of it kissing Ginny.</p><p>Kissing Ginny. He still has a hard time believing it, despite the fact that she is still sitting right next to him, her arm pressed against his. Solid and real.</p><p>It’s something he’d been imagining and uncomfortably dreaming about for a while now, but not something he ever had hopes of actually coming true. And the real thing is so much better than his sodding pillow. So, so much better.</p><p>They haven’t spent the entire time kissing, of course, just as content to chat aimlessly, and for all Ginny is sometimes a complete mystery to him, they never seem to lack things to talk about. She also doesn’t always agree with him, having a way of asking him questions that make him pause and consider, but not feel like she’s nagging him, and he isn’t really sure why that is yet.</p><p>Even when they aren’t though, like right now, he doesn’t feel panic like he has to come up with something. They aren’t kissing or talking, just sitting here, and it’s strangely…great.  </p><p>Like it’s maybe too good to be true.  </p><p>“What?” Ginny asks.</p><p>Harry shakes himself, realizing he’s just staring down at her, and he really needs to quit doing that. Especially with their imminent arrival approaching. And holidays at the Burrow. For two weeks. With her entire family.</p><p>That thought helps wipe off his face whatever ridiculous expression he’s doubtlessly sporting at the moment. “Nothing,” he says.</p><p>“Hmm,” she says, like she doesn’t buy that for a moment, but she also doesn’t press.</p><p>There’s a knock on the compartment door a moment before it starts sliding open. “I’m coming in,” Hermione announces.</p><p>“Yeah, we can see that,” Harry says.</p><p>“Oh,” Hermione says, glancing around the door at them. “I just wasn’t sure…”</p><p>“Don’t worry,” Ginny says, voice overly bright. “We finished with our illegal potion-making at least, what?” She turns to Harry. “An hour ago?”</p><p>Harry nods. “Sold them all too. Hope that first year doesn’t misuse that Draught of Living Death.”</p><p>Ginny shakes her head solemnly. “That would be a shame.”</p><p>“Or mix it up with the love potion,” he says.  </p><p>Ginny stifles a laugh, turning her face towards his shoulder, and Harry suddenly feels like he could take on a thousand dementors.</p><p>Hermione just sighs, grumbling under her breath about how unbearable couples are.  </p><p>Ginny looks up at him, eyes still sparkling with mirth, and he nearly leans over and kisses her.</p><p>“I should probably get back,” she says.</p><p>Almost against his will, his hand tightens around hers, and it’s only then he realizes her hand has ended up in his at some point and hasn’t left.</p><p>Ginny’s eyes dart towards Hermione, and he supposes she feels they’ve tortured her enough for one day. “I should go say goodbye to Smita and Tobias and get my things.”</p><p>“Yeah,” he says, knowing it would be petty to make her stay any longer. “I guess I’ll see you on the platform.”</p><p>She nods. “Yes, you will,” she says, and then she’s lifting up and giving him a fleeting kiss, just to the side of his mouth, like this is something they might do now.</p><p>She pulls away, looking a little self-conscious, and all Harry can do is look back at her, certain that stupid look is on his face again.</p><p>She gets to her feet, her hand squeezing his once before pulling free. She looks over at Hermione. “I hope you have a nice break, Hermione.”</p><p>She looks up at Ginny. “Thanks. I’m looking forward to a little peace and quiet.”</p><p>Ginny laughs. “I can only imagine.” They regard each other for a moment. “Well, happy Christmas.”</p><p>“Happy Christmas,” Hermione says with a nod.</p><p>Ginny turns for the door, smiling at Harry before reaching for the latch.</p><p>He doesn’t think he’s imagining that she takes an extra moment before opening the door, her shoulders squaring and chin lifting. He only catches a glimpse of her face as she leaves, just enough to see that any warmth or softness in her expression have completely disappeared.</p><p>Harry thinks he hears someone say her name in the distance before the door slides shut, cutting off all sound from the hall.</p><hr/><p>The platform is loud with crowds of people, steam billowing up over the sound of various pets complaining against too many hours spent in cages. Calls of ‘Mum? Where are you?’ and ‘Dad! Over here!’ and ‘See you next term!’</p><p>They find Hermione’s parents first, Harry saying goodbye to her before glancing around for the Weasleys. Ron is already with them when Harry finds them.</p><p>Molly sweeps him up into a hug, Arthur shaking his hand.</p><p>“Now where is Ginny?” Molly asks, looking around.</p><p>“You seen her, Harry?” Ron asks, with an all-too-innocent tone that tells Harry he clearly saw his sister come down to the Gryffindor end of the train. Though why he would say that in front of his <em>parents</em>, of all people…</p><p>“Um,” Harry says, panicking.  </p><p>“Neither of you saw her?” Molly asks.</p><p>“I walked right past you, Ron, at least twice,” Ginny says, appearing as if from nowhere. “Though I can understand why you might not have seen me, distracted as you were.”</p><p>With Lavender attached to his face, Harry assumes she means.</p><p>Molly frowns, glancing at her son. “Why were you distracted, Ron? What have you been getting up to?”</p><p>Ron sputters, ears turning red.</p><p>“Oh, nothing,” Ginny says breezily, as if her threat to expose Ron’s relationship with Lavender hadn’t been delivered loud and clear. “He was just really into a chess match. I think he probably took a small fortune off his dormmates.”</p><p>“Ron,” Molly says, clucking her tongue. “What have I said about gambling? Did you brothers’ experience at the World Cup teach you nothing?”</p><p>“I promise, Mum,” Ron says, looking relieved. “I wasn’t doing it for money.”</p><p>Ginny lets out a quiet huff of amusement and then crosses over to Arthur, giving him a giant squeeze. Arthur lifts her up off her feet a little bit, Ginny laughing and smacking his arm.</p><p>“Dad, put me down!”</p><p>He drops her back to her feet, pressing a kiss to the top of her head, clearly content to have mortified his daughter just the right amount.  </p><p>“Shall we get moving?” Arthur asks.</p><p>They collect up their things, pressing close as they line up to go out through the barrier. At one point, Ginny brushes up against Harry, grinning at him, his stomach doing a silly little swoop that nearly sends him crashing into the wrong pillar.</p><p>Once safely out on the other side of the barrier, Tonks and Kingsley are waiting for them.</p><p>“Wotcher, Harry,” she says with a grin, snapping a giant pink wad of bubble gum.  </p><p>“Are you expecting trouble?” Harry asks. It’s not that he isn’t happy to see them, it just seems a bit overkill.</p><p>Kingsley smiles at him. “Just being cautious.”</p><p>“Right,” Harry says, the whole world seeming to rush back in at once.</p><hr/><p>In the cars provided by the Ministry, Ginny sits between Tonks and her mum, Harry, Ron and her dad sitting opposite, with Kingsley in the front with the driver. They’ll likely get home in half as much time this way.</p><p>Harry, of course, seems to think it’s a giant imposition on everyone, like it’s a lot of fuss over nothing. Ginny isn’t sure if it is or not. Tonks and Kingsley hardly seem the sort for overreaction. But then, there’s a lot she doesn’t know about the situation.</p><p>Ginny amuses herself by talking with Tonks, even as she is more than aware of the strange stony silence between Ron and Harry, the two of them giving each other looks when the other doesn’t see.</p><p>It’s enough to make her wonder exactly what kind of conversations they’ve had about Harry dating Ginny.</p><p>Dating. That still seems completely unreal to her. What is that even going to look like?</p><p>Harry looks up, catching her staring, giving her a fleeting smile before darting a look at her parents, as if wondering if they’ll see.</p><p>Ginny sighs.</p><p>In no time at all, they’re pulling up to the Burrow, unloading their things and saying goodbye to the aurors. Ginny runs her things up to her room, the space feeling familiar and yet too small somehow, the way it always does when she first comes back.</p><p>She takes the time to unpack everything, telling herself she’s just being responsible and not that she’s trying to buy herself time.</p><p>Two things became abundantly clear this afternoon. One, Harry is less than comfortable with the situation. And two, Ron is planning to get as much mileage out of last night as possible. Ginny suspects her warning shot back on the train platform will only go so far. Ron may very well decide short term payoff is worth his long-term misery, stupid sod. Which will only make Harry <em>more</em> miserable.</p><p>Only made clearer when it’s time to sit down at the dinner table, Ron and Harry having some sort of an unspoken staring contest. Like Harry might try to sit next to her or something. Like Ron is both egging him on and warning him against it. Merlin.</p><p>Ginny solves the problem by sitting down next to her father, leaving Harry and Ron to sit across from her like usual. She tries to glare at Ron, but he is deliberately not looking at her.  </p><p>Harry is the one constantly looking around at everyone like any one of them might attack him at any moment. Like he’s really beginning to regret the entire thing.</p><p>In that moment, Ginny can see two long weeks of awkwardness ahead of them. That will only get worse as more and more of her brothers arrive. They probably should have spent a little less time on the train kissing and a little more time discussing how they were going to approach this.</p><p>Molly finally sits down with the rest of them, sighing a bit as she gets off her feet. “So how was the Christmas party?” she asks Ginny. “Were the robes alright?”</p><p>It’s hard to believe that was only last night. “They were great, Mum. You outdid yourself.”</p><p>Molly tries to demur but looks really pleased.</p><p>“Harry went to the party too, you know,” Ron helpfully supplies, clearly hoping to make them both squirm as much as possible, the git. One would think he <em>wanted</em> his parents to know about Lavender. Like any of them have the tiniest hope of no news making its way out of Hogwarts to one of the many, many Weasleys.</p><p>“Oh,” Molly says, looking at Harry with a fond smile. “Did you enjoy yourself, dear?”</p><p>Harry looks like he’s about to swallow his tongue. “Um, yeah,” he says. “It was, uh, nice.”</p><p>Ginny can’t help but make a small sound of amusement at his word choice, and he looks up at her in alarm.</p><p>“It was fun,” he amends, like he’s scared he’s offended her, or made her think he hadn’t had a good time. “Really, really fun.”</p><p>Ron opens his mouth, no doubt ready to add to Harry’s discomfort, maybe mention how late Harry had come back to the dorms, and Ginny’s had just about enough of this.</p><p>“We went together,” she says, speaking over Ron. Cutting him off at the pass is definitely the quickest way to deal with this. She will not let him make them all miserable for sodding weeks.</p><p>Harry gives her a surprised look, like he wasn’t expecting her to just blurt it out like that.</p><p>“You and Harry?” Molly asks, immediately picking up on the blood in the water.</p><p>Ginny doesn’t reply, just holds Harry’s gaze, hoping he realizes that this is really the easiest way. Or maybe just giving him a chance to back out. Because part of her is wondering if he’ll deny it, play it off as something they did as friends, if he’d hoped to keep it secret or something. Maybe despite everything, he isn’t really interested in anything more than—</p><p>“Yes,” Harry says, voice forceful enough to cut into her thoughts. “We went together.”</p><p>Ron’s eyes are wide, as if he can’t believe they just admitted it like that.</p><p>Arthur looks up from his dinner as if he hadn’t really been paying attention until now, clearly trying to catch up.</p><p>It’s Molly who looks between them, as if trying to ferret out each and every clue. “How lovely,” she eventually says.  </p><p>“It was,” Ginny says, still looking at Harry.</p><p>He smiles, his shoulders relaxing, like maybe he’d expected to get chucked out of the house or something. “Yeah.”</p><p>Ginny smiles back.</p><p>“So, Ron,” Molly says, looking across the table at her son. “About this gambling…”</p><p>Ron lets out a groan of complaint. “Mum!”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>As they settle in for their first weekend in the Burrow, Ginny is pleased to see that Ron is behaving himself for the most part. </p>
<p>Soon enough he and Harry seem as chummy as ever. And, no, she is not warmed by their ridiculous friendship and how happy it clearly makes both of them just to be around each other. Mostly because Ron has also done everything he can to ensure that Harry and Ginny are never alone for even a minute.</p>
<p>Though it’s Molly who puts a ward across Ginny’s door.</p>
<p>“I’m very happy for you too,” she says, patting Ginny’s hand. “But there will be no nonsense under my roof.”</p>
<p>Ginny bites back the impulse to ask what she means by nonsense. Or more importantly, just what kind of things Molly herself got up to her fifth year to make her so suspicious.</p>
<p>Ron seems to have restrained himself from teasing Harry about the ward, probably rightly realizing he would be mortified if he knew. No, Ron saves the teasing all for her, the git.</p>
<p>But no one is mad or upset or making Harry feel bad, so not being able to find a minute to kiss him again the last 36 hours seems a small enough price to pay. Or so she tells herself.</p>
<p>Ron and Harry are currently at the sink, trimming sprouts, while Ginny sets the table. Harry is filling Ron in on everything they overheard Draco say the night of the party.</p>
<p>Ron glances back at her near the beginning of the recitation—though whether because he isn’t certain she should hear this or because he’s questioning her loyalties, she doesn’t know, because Harry says, “Ginny was there too, she heard it.”</p>
<p>Harry seems glad to have someone to back him up, especially since Ron seems dubious. Not that Ginny doesn’t have to correct Harry a few times when he overstates things.</p>
<p>“It’s definitely suspicious though!” Harry says.</p>
<p>“Yes,” Ginny agrees. “It is.” She still intends to give it the proper thought it deserves, though she’s still not sure what business it is of hers, what Draco may or may not be getting up to. If he’s a Death Eater.</p>
<p>“I take it Malfoy isn’t shouting about his evil plans in the Slytherin common room then,” Ron says, looking back at her.</p>
<p>“No,” Ginny says. “He’s rarely there from what I’ve seen.”</p>
<p>“See!” Harry says, grabbing onto the tidbit with typical zeal. “Suspicious!”</p>
<p>“But I’m not there much either,” she feels the need to clarify. “So maybe I’ve just missed him.”</p>
<p>“You aren’t?” Ron asks. “Why not? I mean, it’s not my favorite place, but I don’t remember it being <em>that</em> unpleasant.”</p>
<p>Ginny’s eyes narrow. “When have you ever been in the Slytherin common room?”</p>
<p>Ron and Harry share shifty glances.</p>
<p>“Uh, never,” Ron says. “Just guessing, really.”</p>
<p>Ginny looks at Harry, daring him to lie to her as blatantly as her brother just did.</p>
<p>He glances uneasily between the two of them. “Our second year,” he says, Ron immediately groaning and shoving at Harry’s shoulder.</p>
<p>“Whipped already,” Ron mutters.</p>
<p>Harry glares at him. “You want me to lie to her?”</p>
<p>“Fine,” Ron says. “We made polyjuice to get in. We thought maybe Malfoy was the one opening the chamber.”</p>
<p>Ginny feels something cold slide down her spine. “Oh.” She shoves the feeling down and away. Away, away, away. When she can breathe again, she says, “Right house, wrong person, I suppose.”</p>
<p>“Yeah,” Ron says, having the grace to look uncomfortable. “Guess so.”</p>
<p>Harry’s looking at her too, but she can’t quite get herself to meet his gaze. “Well, what I’m hearing from this new tidbit is that this is hardly the first time you’ve suspected Draco of some evil plot.”</p>
<p>Ron snorts. “Harry pretty much suspects him of an evil plot every year.”</p>
<p>Harry scowls. “That’s not true. And besides, this year we already have proof!”</p>
<p>“One conversation is hardly proof,” Ron says.</p>
<p>“What about Borgin and Burke’s?”</p>
<p>“We all agreed we didn’t clearly see <em>anything</em> there. And you told Dumbledore, didn’t you? He didn’t think it was anything.”</p>
<p>“Which is stupid!” Harry exclaims. “I mean, the thing with Katie too!”</p>
<p>It does seem like a lot of suspicious things happening around Draco. But hearing that Harry spoke with Dumbledore and was dismissed is just as interesting. Unless he’s exaggerating that too. “Maybe they’re already doing something about it,” Ginny says. “The teachers. And they don’t want you getting in the way.”</p>
<p>Harry turns, opening his mouth with clear outrage, but she cuts across him before he can speak. “I’m not saying that’s right or okay, I’m just saying maybe it’s what they think.”</p>
<p>He gives her a mulish look, taking it out on the poor sprouts.</p>
<p>The conversation doesn’t go any further, the twins bursting into the kitchen a moment later. They come up behind Ron, arms thrown over his shoulders. “What is this we hear about you and a certain Lavender Brown?”</p>
<p>“What?” Ron sputters.</p>
<p>Fred leans in closer. “Sucking face every available moment?”</p>
<p>Ron’s ears burn an alarming shade of red, craning his head around to look at Ginny. “I can’t believe you told them!”  </p>
<p>She lifts her hands. “I didn’t.”</p>
<p>“Oh, no,” Fred confirms. “Our slippery little sister has failed us on that account. We heard it from a very <em>reliable</em> source. A <em>Gryffindor</em> source.”</p>
<p>Ginny rolls her eyes.</p>
<p>George nods. “Third-hand from someone who witnessed it first-hand!”</p>
<p>“Though from what we’ve heard,” Fred adds, “there is no one at Hogwarts who has not witnessed it first-hand.”</p>
<p>Ron pushes them off him, beginning to look desperate. “I think you should be a bit more concerned with who Harry has been snogging!”</p>
<p>“Wow,” Ginny says. “I thought Gryffindor were supposed to be brave. Way to throw your best mate to the skrewts.”</p>
<p>But Ron’s desperate ploy pays off immediately, the twins off and running, and nothing in the world to stop them as they turn on Harry instead.</p>
<p>George looks delighted. “Has little Harry caught himself a paramour at long last as well? What a bumper year for Gryffindor year six!”</p>
<p>Fred leans into Harry. “Has the Chosen One been chosen?”</p>
<p>“Tell us, Harry,” George says.</p>
<p>“Someone slip something into your pumpkin juice?” Fred asks.</p>
<p>Harry scowls. “Of course not.”</p>
<p>“Ah, a bit touchy,” George says, looking over at Fred. “He must really like this girl. It is a girl, isn’t it?”</p>
<p>“Does she know what a scrawny git you are?”</p>
<p>“Hopefully she doesn’t assume the Boy-Who-Lived is suave and cool.”</p>
<p>“Maybe she’s impressed by his Quidditch skills.”</p>
<p>“Likes a bloke who can handle his broom.”</p>
<p>Harry may look like he wants to die and sink into the floor, but Ron is the one looking more and more miserable the longer the twins talk. Serves him right.</p>
<p>Ginny just leans back, content to let them dig a hole as deep as possible for themselves.</p>
<p>“Tell us, Harry,” George insists.</p>
<p>“What’s she like?” Fred asks.</p>
<p>“Easy on the eyes?”</p>
<p>“A scintillating conversationalist?” Fred wags his eyebrows.</p>
<p>“Yes, tell us, Harry,” Ginny breaks in, feeling inexplicably perverse. “Is she a good kisser?”</p>
<p>The twins crow in approval, giving her proud looks as she appears to jump on to the ‘give Harry shit’ train.</p>
<p>Harry’s the one to turn and look at her in surprise, but she just lifts her eyebrow in challenge.</p>
<p>“No need to be bashful,” she says, fighting hard to keep a smile off her face.</p>
<p>He regards her a moment, like he’s trying to figure out what game she’s playing. “A gentleman never tells.”</p>
<p>The twins groan.</p>
<p>“Nice save,” Ginny says.</p>
<p>“Pathetic,” Fred accuses.</p>
<p>“Well, it’s all I’ll say about it,” Harry says, even as a slow grin curves his lips like maybe he’s thinking about their rather leisurely afternoon on the train.</p>
<p>Ginny gets stuck staring at his mouth for a moment.</p>
<p>Fred hoots with laughter. “From the look on his face, I’d say that’s a strong yes.”</p>
<p>“A <em>very</em> strong yes,” George agrees.</p>
<p>“You guys—” Ron tries to interrupt, looking more and more pained. But Ginny has no intention of letting him help the twins out of this before she’s good and ready.</p>
<p>“Ron,” she cuts across him. “Don’t be a spoilsport. We all want to know about Harry’s mystery woman.” She leans forward on her elbow, propping her chin up on her hand. “Go on, Harry. Enlighten us.”</p>
<p>“Yes, do tell,” George says.</p>
<p>“We want details,” Fred agrees.</p>
<p>Ginny settles back to wait, more curious to hear what he’ll say than she probably should be.</p>
<p>“Well,” Harry says, once he realizes Ginny has no intention of rescuing him from this, “she’s definitely got a wicked sense of humor. Downright depraved some might say.”</p>
<p>Ginny fights hard to keep her countenance, and Harry can clearly tell, a small smirk on his face, like maybe he’s settling in to enjoy himself. It only makes her want to kiss him more.</p>
<p>“Good, good,” Fred says. “It’s important to find someone capable of taking a joke.”</p>
<p>Harry nods. “Yes, well, she doesn’t take shit from anyone either. Especially me.” He pauses, his eyes lighting up with mischief. “Best of all, she’s almost as good as I am at Quidditch.”</p>
<p>“<em>Almost</em>?” Ginny says, forgetting herself.</p>
<p>“Also,” Harry continues, clearly either not recognizing or just unmoved by the murder in her eyes, “even though she would deny it with her dying breath, she is just as competitive as any Gryffindor.”</p>
<p>“You take that back,” she says, eyes narrowing.</p>
<p>Harry leans against the sink, grinning at her as he crosses his arms over his chest, clearly proud to have gotten a rise out of her. “Make me.”</p>
<p>Ginny pushes to her feet. “Oh, it’s on. You, me, brooms, the paddock. Now.”</p>
<p>“Wait, what?” she hears George say, but she’s far too focused on Harry to care.</p>
<p>“It’s nearly dark!” Ron tries to reason. “And cold!”</p>
<p>“So what?” Harry says, clearly just as keen.  </p>
<p>“Yeah,” Ginny says. “Fred and George will help you finish up the sprouts. Won’t you, brother dears?” Crossing over to Harry, she grabs the front of his shirt, tugging him towards the back door. “Harry and I have a few things to take care of.”</p>
<p>They are walking out the door when she hears George says, “What the hell?”</p>
<p>“You mean Harry and <em>Ginny—</em>?” Fred starts to say, voice incredulous.</p>
<p>The door shuts, cutting off any further conversation.</p>
<p>Harry shakes his head as he follows her out into the garden. “I meant it. <em>Depraved</em>.”</p>
<p>“You had just as much fun with that, admit it,” Ginny says, leading him around towards the front of the house until they are out of view of the kitchen windows.  </p>
<p>“Depraved,” he repeats, even as he reaches for her waist, like it’s also occurred to him that this is the first time they’ve been alone since they arrived.</p>
<p>“And a really good kisser?” she asks, her hand sneaking up behind his neck, Quidditch already forgotten. Or rather put off for another day. She has no intention of <em>forgetting</em> it.</p>
<p>“Yeah,” he says, “not a competitive bone in your body.”</p>
<p>“Shut up and kiss me.”</p>
<p>“I should have added bossy,” he says, not giving her a chance to respond before he’s kissing her.  </p>
<p>And god, it’s almost better that she remembers, her entire body tingling as he kisses and kisses and kisses her, brothers and mysteries and competitions all completely forgotten. Neither of them even paying any attention to the two soft cracks nearby as more people arrive.</p>
<p>“So was anyone going to tell me that Harry and Ginny are together?” they hear Bill ask loudly as he wrenches open the front door to the Burrow. “Or was I just supposed to walk by them snogging in the garden to figure it out?”</p>
  </div></div>
</body>
</html>